DUSHANBE, August 30, 2010, Asia-Plus — The Ministry of Finance (MoF) does not inform about funds raised from the sale of shares in open joint-stock company (OJSC) NBO Roghun any more and Asia-Plus’ reporter has failed to get an updated information about NBO Roghun’s account.
The last information about funds raised form the sale of the shares in Roghun was posted on MoF’s website (
www.minfin.tj
) on July 23. As of July 23, the sale of Roghun shares to the public reportedly earned the government 819,605,306 somoni, which only 355,000 somoni more than the indicator for July 10.
Employees of the MoF’s Board Treasury and Agency for Equity that had previously provided the information about funds raised from the sale of Roghun shares without any problem could not says what a total amount of Roghun’s funds is now.
The MoF press service says the information must come from the mentioned agencies and the press service is not responsible for the provision of these data.
“It is known that the International Monetary Fund has recommended the Tajik government to stop an official advertising campaign on Roghun’s construction,” said the source at the MoF press service, “All information we receive we post on our website. May be the shares in Roghun are not being sold now and there nothing to inform.”
In the meantime, the source at one of public institutions of the country, who wanted to remain unnamed, told Asia-Plus Monday afternoon that equity sales sharply decreased after the IMF and World Bank recommendation to stop the official advertising campaign on Roghun’s construction.
“International financial institutions realize that these funds were withdrawn from the country’s economy and these funds will devalue if they are not used,” said the source, “The construction of the facility is suspended until the World Bank completes feasibility study; and the funds cannot be used in large scale correspondingly.”
The source welcomed suspension in the sale of Roghun shares. At first, it is necessary to draw the funds that have been raised to this day.
“Uzbekistan’s rail blockade of Tajikistan is connected with Tajikistan”s decision to raise funds within the country to complete the construction of the Roghun hydroelectric plant,” said he, “By this way, Uzbek authorities want the raised funds to devalue. Therefore, Tajik authorities have decided that there ought not to inform about the raised funds any more.”
We will recall that the IMF team head, Mr. Axel Schimmelpfennig, told reporters in Dushanbe on April 13 they welcome the Tajik government”s commitments to strong governance in the context of the Roghun project, including having external audits of the Roghun OJSC and providing regular reports to the public on the use of funds. The IMF welcomes the government”s cooperation with the World Bank on the Roghun project, and in particular the ongoing techno-economic, social and environmental impact assessments, he added. Mr. Schimmelpfennig noted that the Roghun fundraising campaign had a negative impact on macroeconomic and social indicators of the country. According to him, funds collected for the construction of the Roghun in recent months amounted to 3 percent of Tajikistan’s gross domestic product (GDP). According to him, the mission concurs with the governments” projections that equity sales for Roghun will be low over the remainder of the year.
To raise funds to complete construction of the Roghun HPP the government started to sell shares in Roghun to people on January 6 this year.
