President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday ordered Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to come up with a proposal to reorganize state corporations after calling for them to be disbanded in his state-of-the-nation address.
The order comes after Medvedev fired another broadside against the government holdings and his aide, Arkady Dvorkovich, said three could be turned into joint-stock companies as early as next year.
Last week, Prosecutor General Yury Chaika and presidential aide Konstantin Chuichenko presented a report to Medvedev showing multiple violations on the part of state corporations. Chaika said 22 criminal cases were opened as a result.
“The inspection of state corporations showed that current legislation doesn’t establish uniform criteria for defining the state corporation as a legal entity. The lack of proper control over their activities in certain cases leads to the inefficient use of state property,” Medvedev said in a statement.
He ordered the prime minister to work out a plan for turning state corporations working in competitive fields into a different organizational form.
Vneshekonombank, Russian Technologies and Rusnano were singled out by Dvorkovich on Thursday as ready to be turned into joint-stock companies.
For those state corporations not working in a competitive sector, Medvedev ordered Putin to set a fixed time for which they would be allowed to operate and to prepare legislation that would ensure transparency.
Medvedev and other senior officials have come out against state corporations since they were created in 2007, with the critics saying they should operate under the same laws as regular joint-stock companies. State corporations are not obliged to make public any financial information, and laws on bankruptcy do not apply to them.
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