DUSHANBE, August 7, 2008, Asia-Plus — A control unit will be set up at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) before the end of September this year to monitor large enterprises in the country, Mr. David Owen, Senior Advisor in the International Monetary Fund”s (IMF) Middle East and Central Asia Department, announced at a press conference in Dushanbe on August 6.
According to him, establishment of the control body is provided for by the Staff Monitored Program (SMP), which is currently being implemented in Tajikistan.
“The control unit will be engaged in monitoring large enterprises that will have to regularly submit reports to this unit,” Mr. Owen said, adding that establishment of such a body will be an important step towards increase in transparency of activities of large state-run companies. The control body is expected to have been established by an appropriate resolution by the end of September.
On auditing Barqi Tojik power holding, Mr. Owen said that audit is going on and it is not yet known when it will be completed. “Auditor has put a number of questions to the power holding, and the audit completion term depends on how soon the holding will answer these questions,” said the IMF official. “The power holding is large taxpayer and we hope to find out reasons for its tax debts.”
Concerning Tajik central bank’s readiness to repay its debts to the IMF, Mr. Owen noted that over the last several weeks, the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) has increased international reserves in more volumes than it had been expected during development of the program. “As far as we know and official bodies confirm that, the NBT is ready to start repaying the debts, as it was supposed, beginning from late September,” he said.
