Sotchi, les JO champions de la corruption ?

Sotchi, les JO champions de la corruption ? A quelques jours du début des Jeux olympiques 2014 à Sotchi en Russie la Fondation anti-corruption publie un site internet listant les cas de corruption présumée autour du chantier olympique. Russie-Libertés publie les chiffres du rapport. Vous pouvez découvrir la carte et les détails ici : https://sochi.fbk.info/en/

Communiqué de la fondation anti-corruption :

Champions of Olympic corruption: Sochi-2014 Encyclopedia of spending

The Anti-Corruption Foundation is launching sochi.fbk.info where we provide data on 30 main Olympic sites. We have found that the costs of the majority of them have been overstated by 1.5 to 2.5 times. Sochi.fbk.info is a map and encyclopedia of the Olympics, in which we have outlined Olympic venues, infrastructure facilities and environmental issues. When you click on a particular geotag icon, a window with a wiki-like entry pops up. The format is the same for every site (except environmental issues): name, summary, cost, a comparison with similar projects, the construction history in both brief and full versions, and the list of sources.

We proved that the costs of at least 10 of the sites had been overstated by 1.5 to 2.5 times (for those where a valid comparison can be made). We also found out that the majority of the ‘private’ investors were directly or indirectly linked to state. Finally we estimated the amount of direct transfers from the government to finance the Olympics. These amounted to 855 billion rubles ($ 26,1 bn) out of the total cost of 1.5 trillion.

To sum up the Olympic project construction, the Foundation has awarded state officials and constructors for outstanding performance in the following five nominations: classic embezzlement, pair contract, figure lending, verbal freestyle and ecological multi-sport. For example, in the first nomination the gold medal goes to Mr. Putin’s old buddy, Arkadii Rotenberg - his companies gets 227 bn rubles ($ 6,9 bn) from the Olympic funds.

We based our investigations on the financial statements of contractors and clients, contractor background services, offshore databases, facts from activists and environmentalists, estimates from industry experts, as well as information from open sources.

The Anti-Corruption Foundation will continue to work on the project and will add new information to sochi.fbk.info on a regular basis.

8 interesting facts

1 The Olympic equation. President Putin and other officials say cost of Olympic construction project as 214 billion rubles ($ 6,5 bn). This is not true. Taking into account the cost of infrastructure projects, its cost is 1.5 trillion rubles. The costs were allocated as follows:

RUR 1,500 bn ($45,8 bn)=

RUR 822 bn ($25,1 bn) of direct transfer from state budget

  1. The cost of most Olympic facilities has been overstated by 1.5 to 2.5 times. For example, the Fisht Olympic Stadium, proved 2.5 times more expensive than similar projects, in terms of cost per sit.

  2. Olympstroy (the largest state-owned company to build Olympic projects) spent 13.6 billion rubles on their own administrative cost between 2008 and 2012. 82% of this amount was paid as salaries. Their average wage in 2012 was 137,500 rubles a month. ($ 4200)

  3. The most costly project, the combined rail and highway “Adler — Krasnaya Polyana”, was built by three friends of Putin: Yakunin, Timchenko and Rotenberg. The cost twice exceeded that of similar projects.

  4. We have uncovered several family business affairs. For example, Roman Batalov, the son-in-law of Krasnodar’s Governor Tkachyov, is building the Sochi Park theme resort. The project will not be ready until 2020, but is included in the list of Olympic sites. The Ice Cube curling arena was built by Alexander Svischev, the father of a Russian parliament member and of the president of the Russian Curling Federation, Dmitry Svischev. The Olympstroy office was built by Andrei Monosov, the son of the former vice-president of the Olympstroy State Corporation, Leonid Monosov.

  5. Omega-Center OAO, which the President of “Olympstroi” claimed to be a “private investor” is 100% owned by the Krasnodar Region’s government. For the construction of Olympic facilities, the company received 48.2 billion ($ 1,4 bn) from the budget, all paid for by issuing additional shares. Consent for share buyouts were given by the members of the regional Legislative Assembly, almost all of whom are members of United Russia.

  6. Officials’ statements about the “greenest Olympics in history” are far from reality. For example, Russian Railways is responsible an enormous waste disposal site in the village of Akhshtyr, as well as for cutting down endangered species of trees and shrubs.

  7. One of the co-owners of Inzhtransstroy, Efim Basin, (former Russian Minister of Construction) has a personal coat of arms with the motto “audacity and inspiration.” His company, together with a group owned by Roman Abramovich, has built a media village for journalists whose cost amounts to 38.4 billion rubles ($ 1,2 bn).