Stefan Vasiliev, head of the UNDP Agency in Moscow, has a business lunch in National Hotel.
Photo: Valery Levitin
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Moscow Office of UNDP Robbed of Around $1.2 Million
Around $1.2 million was stolen by a few officials of the Moscow agency of UNDP from 2000 to 2004. All persons involved in financial abuse left the agency, the authority of the agency’s head Stefan Vasiliev was terminated.
The investigation that started in June and is still underway has revealed that around $1.2 million allocated under various projects of UNDP was stolen from 2000 to 2004 in its Moscow agency. The first suspicions arose long ago, Viktoria Zotikova, who is a PR aide in the Moscow UNDP, told Kommersant, adding the persons involved are residents of Russia and they all have changed employment to-date.
Actually, the present investigation has two objectives to attain. First of all, the guilty should be found, naturally; second, it is vital to reveal the management drawbacks that opened the door to such sizeable misappropriation. No names of suspects have been given, but the authority of Stefan Vasiliev, who headed the office from early 2003, has been terminated till the end of investigation and a new boss will be appointed soon.
UNDP called on the Russian government for assistance. In the Moscow office, they count on getting back some portion of the stolen money.
UNDP has been operating in Russia since 1997. So far, It has invested over $56 million in various projects executed in 30 regions of the country.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 01, 2005
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