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General Procurator's Office of Ukraine revealed numerous abuses in grain market
General Procurator's Office of Ukraine in the course of inspections in the grain market has revealed numerous abuses and breeches of legislation and in most cases has instituted criminal proceedings against persons, suspected in distortion of statistical reports, Deputy General Procurator of Ukraine Tetyana Korniakova said to a TV programme on the first national channel.
She said, because of considerable abuses in statistical reporting, General Procurator's Office had to call into question the truthfulness of the 2002 grain crop report, claiming for the figure of 40 million tonnes.
"We can now query this figure - 40 million tonnes - which stands in the official statistical reporting", she said.
She said a criminal case was prosecuted in Dnepropetrovsk region on the fact of a sale of 2.5 million tonnes of grain, which was considered to be a property of state reserve. Similar cases were revealed in Odessa region.
She also said that out of 10 million tonnes of grain sold last year, only 10,000 tonnes were put through exchanges. About 5 million tonnes were sold in the most unsuitable for the state and agricultural producers time - from July through October.
She said these sales were being made under the pressure of government, which issued 54 orders for urgent exports.
Ms Kornyakova also informed about checks being made by the Procurator's Office of all grain traders and procedure of grain exports, and also of all ministries and departments, related to grain exports. She declared that following the results of the inspection, should any abuses be revealed, the strictest measures will be taken against the guilty person and criminal proceedings will be instituted in all relevant circumstances.
As it has already been reported, last week General Procurator's Office of Ukraine, on the commissioning of President, started investigations in the grain market with the aim to find out the causes of grain deficit in some regions in conditions of plentiful production.
According to declarations of Agrarian Policy Ministry, stocks of milling grain at the moment constitute 2.6 million tonnes, which is enough to provide for stable operations of the bread baking industry till arrival of new crop in the market.