July 24 2003, 11:03 APK-Inform

GPO states it revealed numerous abuses in farm sector

General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine has revealed lots of abuses in the country's farming and food processing industries, Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Natalia Korniakova has said at a press-conference in the Cabinet of Ministers.

"In recent 2 or 3 months there have been started 270 criminal cases solely in the grain market", she said.

She said that the largest number of abuses was connected with illegal privatisation of grain elevators, misuse of money funds, illegal granting of loans and mismanagement of state authorities. For instance, last year 210,000 tonnes of grain were sold from the State Reserve and only 186,000 tonnes were purchased.

"There has been no system of state regulation of food market, and that is why there are cases of mismanagement", Ms Korniakova declared.

She pointed out that GPO was considering the work of Ukraine's Anti-Monopoly Committee to be "quite insufficient", as not a single material had been submitted by this body to the law-enforcement authorities for prosecuting criminal cases and only administrative measures had been used.

The lady prosecutor has had the same kinds of discontent with some more state controlling bodies, which, while revealing infringements, were not applying to Prosecutor's Office, restricting only with penal sanctions.