Russia misused IBRD credit

The Russian Audit Chamber sees as "extremely unsatisfactory" the use of resources given to finance the enterprise support project through the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development /World Bank/. The 200 million-dollar credit was given in 1995 to 16 Russian commercial banks for subsequent recrediting to final borrower enterprises, reports the information and public relations board of the Audit Chamber.

One reason for the misuse of sums under this project is suspension of the project owing to the 1998 financial meltdown and a draw-out procedure of passing the documents required to resume the project, said the Audit Chamber. Because of the payments made to reserve the borrowing, which were not put to use in time, the federal budget suffered a preliminary damage of 700,000 American dollars. As of February 2002, overdue debt-servicing commitments of banks involved in the enterprise support project to the federal budget added up 13.1 million dollars.