A criminal case has been initiated against the Chairman of the Accounts Chamber (CA) of the Samara Region Elena Dubrova for abuse of office. We are talking about the concealment of violations that the department revealed during the audit of the regional GKU “Transport Support Service”. Elena Dubrova was appointed to the post of head of the joint venture by the Gubernia Duma on the proposal of Governor Dmitry Azarov. Experts believe that “the executive branch, being the audited party, should not participate in the formation of the Accounts Chamber and determining the composition of its leadership.”
The Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of the Samara Region, Elena Dubrova, was detained as part of a criminal case initiated by the Main Investigation Department under the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Samara Region on abuse of power (part 2 of article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). This was announced by the deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Alexander Khinshtein in his Telegram channel.
The criminal case is connected with the concealment of violations of budget legislation, which the department revealed during the audit of the State Public Institution of the Samara Region “Transport Support Service”.
“According to preliminary data, the concealment occurred at the insistence of the leadership of the regional government. As a result, the revealed violations were shelved and were not included in the inspection report,” the parliamentarian said in a statement.
In the criminal case, we are talking about an inspection by the Chamber of the financial and economic activities of the organization for 2019 and the first three quarters of 2020. The document on its results (.pdf) is posted on the website of the Accounts Chamber of the region. What violations were hidden is still unknown.
The auditors, in particular, noted that the regional transport support service violated the regulation on the remuneration of employees in terms of establishing monthly bonuses and allowances for tension and a special mode of work. Violations also concerned the calculation of travel allowances and overtime pay. In addition, the institution transferred part of the cars for free use to other organizations and spent 104.6 thousand rubles on paying transport tax on these cars in 2019, and 95.5 thousand rubles in 2020, but the companies did not reimburse these expenses . After that, the control body reported that the service had eliminated all violations.
Law enforcement agencies do not comment on the situation. The government of the Samara region and the Accounts Chamber of the region have not yet responded to requests from Kommersant.
Elena Dubrova has been the Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of the Samara Region since 2019. Her candidacy for this position was proposed by the governor Dmitry Azarov. Then he noted that Ms. Dubrova “has extensive experience in the field of budget planning, audit, financial activities and management.” She has more than 27 years of work experience, including more than 10 years of managerial experience.
Since 2006, Elena Dubrova has been working in state and municipal authorities. Before being appointed to the post of head of the control body, she was the head of the education department of the Samara administration.
State Duma deputy Mikhail Matveev believes that the plot of the criminal case “is very similar to the truth.” He notes that over the past ten years, the Accounts Chamber of the region has changed a lot. So, earlier it was a structural subdivision of the provincial duma, to which, according to the charter of the region, the executive power should report. “Accordingly, she was more independent. After changes in legislation, the Accounts Chamber left the structure of the legislature and became a separate division. Now its chairman is appointed by the Gubernia Duma on the proposal of the governor,” the parliamentarian notes.
In fact, the Accounts Chamber of the region has become subordinate to the governor, says Mikhail Matveev. But, according to him, the executive branch, being the audited party, should not participate in the formation of the Accounts Chamber and determining the composition of its leadership.
In this case, “there is a high probability that the fate of the violations that the Accounts Chamber reveals in its work is influenced by the bodies it checks,” the deputy says. The initiation of a criminal case against Elena Dubrova was the result of this situation, the parliamentarian believes.
Previously, the Accounts Chamber of the region was headed by Antonina Zubkova. Under her leadership, the control body made many high-profile revelations. In particular, the auditors identified violations in the conduct of tenders for road maintenance by the Ministry of Transport of the region, which “ASADO wins without an alternative”. Also, the audit of the Accounts Chamber led to a change in the leadership of Samara River Port JSC. The department came to the conclusion that the actions of the former general director and the pricing policy of the enterprise brought losses to the river port by 70 million rubles.