Tokarchuk "accepted", Klimentyev is silent

      Photo: Main Directorate of the Russian EMERCOM for the YNAO

      September 5 – IA SM.News. The detention of Salekhard’s vice-mayor Nikolay Tokarchuk on charges of participation in a “fraudulent criminal group” and possible misappropriation of budget funds involving the ANO Media Center “Salekhard” could not but attract extensive media coverage.

      Photo: Website of the Tyumen Regional Duma duma72.ru

      Both the field of activity — media and social networks — which attracts attention, and the direction — the fight against corruption in government bodies — are popular and debated topics, especially after the start of the fight against Nazism in Ukraine. What happened is an indisputable political and reputational blow to the prestige of the Yamal authorities. And it seems, it is extremely surprising. Because the shocking prospects of the audit’s findings were apparently known in Salekhard for a long time; people knew and kept silent, preferring, it would seem, not to interfere in the situation and not to take drastic steps.

      “COUNTED — CRIED”

      The first flare-up in the YNAO occurred last winter, when auditors from the Accounts Chamber announced the “whole list” of the audit of “certain issues of the activities of Salekhard’s city media structure.” The Accounts Chamber sent information about the violations found both upwards — to the head of the district and the Legislative Assembly — and downwards — to the Media Center “Salekhard” itself and the city leadership. “Following the results of the Accounts Chamber of the YNAO’s audit of the ANO Media Center ‘Salekhard,’ the administration has developed an annual plan of control checks by the city administration’s finance department. This will ensure strict control over the effective use of budget funds and the organization of competitive procedures when procuring goods and services,” the city officials responded.

      At that time discrete personnel changes took place in Salekhard.

      Photo: Forum “Women for a Healthy Society” womenforhealth.ru

      “In Salekhard a new head of the ANO Media Center ‘Salekhard’ has been appointed: Ulyana Chepalo, press secretary to the city head Alexey Titovsky. The previous head of the organization, Yulia Sadykova, resigned,” URA.RU reported. The former head of the public relations department, Vladimir Garmider, was also “removed” from his post. It was reported that she “left of her own accord.” Salekhard’s leadership apparently believed that these measures were sufficient to contain and resolve the problem.

      After that, silence fell for half a year, until it “exploded” again, this time with information about the opening of a criminal case in which Nikolay Tokarchuk became a suspect. We wrote about this in detail recently.

      BLOW TO HIS OWN REPUTATION

      Even the governor had to defend himself over the high-profile corruption scandal. And this despite the fact that the scale of the problem is not at the gubernatorial level but local. But Dmitry Artyukhov, so to speak, bravely took the blow; he did not shift blame to others or play coy about “someone somewhere here sometimes.”

      Photo: ynao.er.ru

      “Combatting corruption is one of our main tasks. It is a very principled matter. High-profile cases in Yamal precisely confirm that there are no special favors here: if there are facts, our law enforcement system works very professionally. In the mentioned case — it was the result of our Accounts Chamber audit. Then the materials were transferred to the law enforcement system. And this indicates that if there are abuses, the reaction will inevitably follow,” the head of the YNAO declared decisively.

      Interestingly, from the very moment of the initial disclosure of this, to put it mildly, dubious story last winter, the Department of Internal Policy of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug has distanced itself and, it seems, kept a deathly silence — even though the deputy head of Salekhard’s city administration “works” in that department’s direction.

      KLIMENTYEV’S SILENCE

      Why is Sergey Klimentyev’s department silent?

      Photo: Department of Internal Policy of the YNAO

      One can only speculate. Did the YNAO’s “internal policy” hope that everything would resolve itself? Who knows. Was there fear of aftershocks? Not impossible. Did they miss the beginnings of a corruption scandal or let it slip by? Anything is possible. Did they consider the problem “not their business”? We will not assert that.

      That is what is surprising.

      Sergey Klimentyev is a public servant with an excellent education, an impressive record in the socio-political sphere “from the very bottom,” and 27 years of experience in government bodies. Klimentyev has headed the regional Department of Internal Policy, consider this, since 2011. Presidents have changed twice, the region’s top officials three times, deputies and bureaucratic personalities… And Sergey Klimentyev for 14 uninterrupted years coordinated in the region “the area of state policy, which includes a set of main principles, directions and specific forms of activity of the state, its institutions, bodies and organizations, ensuring the functioning, preservation or reform of the established socio-political and economic order within the country.”

      Maybe it’s simpler? Fatigue and a jaded outlook against the background of the upcoming elections to the Legislative Assembly? Maybe, as it was said in revolutionary years in the Tauride Palace, “the guard is tired”?

      IA SM.News hopes that answers from Sergey Klimentyev to an official request, which the editorial office will address to the head of the Department of Internal Policy of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, will clarify the situation.

      Author: Pavel Nikulchev

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