The Accounts Chamber has classified the audit of Skolkovo

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The trilateral agreement between the Skolkovo Foundation, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the autonomous non-profit organization Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (SINT, Skoltech) was concluded in violation of Russian law. These are the conclusions reached by the auditors of the Accounts Chamber, who last autumn checked the activities of the Skolkovo Foundation. In addition, the government, instead of funding the domestic innovation cluster, instructed to allocate 1.6 billion rubles in grants to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. According to Izvestia, a significant number of violations identified in the Skolkovo activities led to the fact that the Accounting Board classified these auditors' checks.

In February of this year, a short message was published on the website of the Accounts Chamber about the audit conducted by auditors of the use of federal budget funds aimed at creating and ensuring the functioning of the Skolkovo innovation center. Then the auditors noted that 31.6 billion rubles were spent on Skolkovo from the budget. The audit showed that there are no specific target indicators in subsidies for innovation cities in relation to the timing of their implementation. "This creates risks of reliability in assessing the effectiveness of their use," the joint venture noted, no other comments were published.

According to Izvestia, the auditors' report was classified as "Secret" due to the violations identified in the financing of Skolkovo.

- The report of the auditors for Skolkovo was classified and did not get into public access, - said a source in the Accounts Chamber. According to him, the auditors were pressured: "The government put pressure on the joint venture and did everything to ensure that the report was not published and it did not become known that the budget money allocated for Skolkovo goes to the United States in the form of grant funding from the Massachusetts Institute." Officials from the joint venture confirmed to Izvestia that the report on this inspection is classified as "Secret".

Izvestia managed to get hold of the full report of the Skolkovo inspection, including the "secret" part. According to the auditors, under the terms of the agreement concluded in September 2010 between Skolkovo and MIT, the American side took upon itself the responsibility to develop a concept for an international research institute and create a corresponding “roadmap”, and the Russian side undertook to compensate MIT's expenses. As a result, according to the auditors, MIT received $ 7.5 million for this work. Of this amount, more than $ 5.5 million is the repayment of the costs of American partners, and $ 2 million is the remuneration of MIT. "In the initial version of the agreement, it was about $ 2.5 million, which MIT was supposed to receive, but then the amount was increased three times through an additional agreement concluded in March 2011," the joint venture said in a report.

“The ability to control the expenses of the American institution was virtually ruled out,” the auditors say.

In October 2011, a new agreement was signed between MIT, Skolkovo and SINT, where other amounts already appeared, but control over the expenses of the American side was still not spelled out.

Under this agreement, the Russian fund must provide the American side with financing in the amount of $ 302.5 million - directly or through third parties. Most of the amount, $ 152 million, was to go to increase the capacity of MIT, and only $ 150.5 million - to create the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology. At the same time, MIT had the right to use the first part of the amount that went in the form of grant support at its discretion - including for purposes not related to cooperation with Skolkovo. The second part of the amount must also be transferred by MIT as grants. According to the auditors, the Russian side did not even demand financial participation from MIT in the project. Whether the entire $ 300 million was allocated, the auditors did not specify in the report.

The total amount of funds allocated to Skolkovo, which may eventually go to finance American science, according to their data, may increase significantly. As noted in the classified report, in 2011, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev instructed the Ministry of Finance to provide Skolkovo with funds in the amount of up to 9 billion rubles in 2011-2013. And an additional agreement, dated October 2011, between the Ministry of Finance and Skolkovo, provided for the allocation of MIT "within the framework of joint activities" 1.6 billion rubles.

Moreover, representatives of the Accounts Chamber noted that the trilateral agreement (between MIT, Skolkovo and SINT), which was approved by Dmitry Medvedev (at that time the country's president), was contrary to Russian law. "The agreement was concluded only in English, and there was no translation of this document in the fund, which contradicts the norms of Russian law," the auditors noted.

Representatives of the Accounts Chamber were also concerned about the possibility of uncontrolled use of the allocated funds by the American side.

Skolkovo itself said that the report on the control event approved by the Board of the Accounts Chamber did not contain any questions about the current agreement on the creation of Skoltech.

- This document does not question the compliance of the agreement with MIT with Russian legislation. As for the timing and functioning of our university itself, the project is being implemented strictly within the framework of the approved plan,”Aleksandr Chernov, vice-president of the Skolkovo Foundation, told Izvestia. MIT did not respond to Izvestia's request.

At the same time, Aleksey Sitnikov, vice president for management and development of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, confirmed that the agreement between Skolkovo and MIT was signed in English, but did not agree with the auditors that this was contrary to Russian law.

“There is a treaty, it’s true. It is signed in English between Skoltech, MIT and the Skolkovo Foundation. There is a certified translation of the document, but English is the main language of the contract. If there is a discrepancy between the Russian and English versions, then in our agreement the main language is English. This does not contradict Russian legislation. Sitnikov noted that none of the participants in the trilateral agreement commented on issues related to the amount of the contract and any payments, since this information is confidential.

- I can only say that the agreement is not a grant agreement and an agreement on the provision of paid services, since MIT is an NPO and cannot provide commercial services. This is a cooperation agreement that outlines joint efforts to build Skoltech. The American Institute provides us with assistance in a number of areas, which are clearly indicated in the document, and there is an agreed reporting form for it, which MIT provides, - explains Sitnikov.

According to experts, the claims of the control department can seriously complicate the partnership of the Russian innovation city with both MIT and other foreign scientific centers, as well as interest law enforcement agencies, which can begin to check the implementation of the agreement and all the circumstances of its appearance.

“The orders of the Accounts Chamber within the framework of its powers are binding, but the main thing in this situation is whether Skolkovo's activities have caused damage to the state or not,” says lawyer Viktor Naumov.

Vladislav Isaev, an analyst with the Finam investment holding, notes that the agreement, regardless of whether it harmed the Russian side or not, will look like a "dirty deal" from the point of view of the American political establishment. And it, according to him, can be disrupted at any moment. In this case, Skolkovo will lose all the money transferred to the Americans.

- MIT agreed to this deal due to the difficult financial situation. Skolkovo gave a kind of "bribe" to get a technological partnership in return, the analyst says.

According to experts, such payments to American scientists, which were made by the Skolkovo management, are meaningless, since no one in the United States or Europe seeks to contribute to Russian scientific and technological progress.

In February 2013, it became known that the Investigative Committee of Russia (TFR) was conducting an investigation on suspicion of misappropriation of funds in the Skolkovo innovation center. According to investigators, 3.5 billion budget rubles intended for the development of the science city, instead of being used for its intended purpose, were kept for a long time in the accounts of Metcombank, the ultimate beneficiary of which is Viktor Vekselberg, President of the Skolkovo Foundation. Representatives of the TFR suspect that the bank put the money into circulation, thanks to which the interested parties received illegal profits.