The Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation considered the implementation of priority investment projects in the forestry industry of the Krasnoyarsk Territory ineffective

Auditors of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation checked the implementation of priority investment projects (PIP) in the forestry industry of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The projects are not being implemented effectively enough and do not stimulate the development of the forestry sector. This conclusion follows from the report reviewed by Newslab.

Priority investment projects such as a measure of state support for the forestry industry, implemented in Russia since 2008. Enterprises of the timber industry complex are provided with lease of forest plots for timber harvesting on preferential terms. At the same time, organizations are required to create or modernize processing infrastructure by investing in it a specified amount of investment.

In the Krasnoyarsk Territory, 31 such projects were announced for a total amount of 531.8 billion rubles. Only 12 of them have been completed. At the same time, 5 of the implemented projects involved only the creation of lumber and the processing of sawmill waste, without further deep processing of raw materials.

Another 11 projects are in operation, and the remaining 8 totaling 223.6 billion rubles have been excluded from the list. This happened due to the failure of investors to fulfill their stated obligations to create or modernize production facilities. Auditors note that after this the leased land was returned to the state, but the enterprise was obliged to pay the rent. But in the Krasnoyarsk Territory alone, 563.4 million rubles were written off due to the impossibility of collection.

The Accounts Chamber notes that for implemented projects, the indicators were only partially achieved in terms of product output, the functioning of the created infrastructure, job creation, and reforestation obligations. Only one indicator has been fully met – the volume of investments. The planned volume of timber harvesting has not been achieved.

Also, during the audit, it was established that after the completion of the project, the state loses control over the fulfillment of investors’ obligations to process the forest resource. At the same time, enterprises continue to use the forest provided to them on preferential terms for a period of 49 years.

“The results obtained indicate that priority investment projects have not become an effective measure of state support for the forestry complex. Despite the benefits, enterprises do not ensure efficient use of the forest resources provided to them: they do not master the estimated cutting area and do not process wood in the planned volumes. More than half of the harvested timber is sold in unprocessed form, and the percentage of development of forest resources allocated for PIP has not exceeded 60% since 2015. At the same time, lost state revenues as a result of the provision of rent relief amounted to almost 26 billion rubles,” stated Sergei Mamedov, auditor of the Accounts Chamber, following the audit.

The Accounts Chamber noted that the systemic problem that led to such results is the lack of clear goals and target indicators characterizing the effects of project implementation. At the federal level, there are no uniform criteria for including projects in the list of PIPs. In general, based on the results of the audit, the Accounts Chamber came to the conclusion that it is necessary to change approaches to evaluating the projects themselves and their implementation.

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