DUSHANBE, April 15, 2009, Asia-Plus — I did not have personal financial interest in cotton investment and I did not make money on that, the former head of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), and sitting deputy prime minister in charge of the agriculture, Murodali Alimardon, said in an interview with Asia-Plus commenting on the results of a special audit carried out by international audit and consulting firm Ernst & Young at the central bank of Tajikistan last year.
Mr. Alimardon admitted that the scheme of financing cotton-rowing farms by means of the NBT loans that had given rice to unfavorable comments of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had been created by him. “The scheme was aimed at supporting enhancement of agrarian sector that experienced an acute shortage of funds,” said Alimardon, “Problems of the whole agrarian sectors were being solved due to those funds.”
According to him, more than 1.5 billion US dollars were invested in the agrarian sector from 1996 to 2006. This concerns mainly the provided loans. Alimardon says many enterprises were rehabilitated and a number of other plants and factories ere constructed due to those credits.
Detailed interview with Murodali Alimardon will be published in the April 16 issue of the weekly
Asia-Plus
.
We will recall that the audit, in particular, showed that in 2004-2007, Murodali Alimardon diverted 856.4 million US dollars to Credit-Invest. Instead of spending the money on agriculture-related projects as it was supposed to, Credit-Invest spent lavishly on other ventures, including $800,000 on a restaurant in the northern city of Istaravshan. As of August 31, 2008, Credit-Invest owed 295.3 million dollars to the NBT. In addition, the audit found that $221.5 million in state funds that were allocated in 2004-2007 for projects to develop the cotton sector have disappeared.
Murodali Alimardon served as the head of the National Ban of Tajikistan Central Bank from 1996 to 2008.
