MOSCOW, April 21 (RAPSI) – Top managers of the Ideal company that is involved in the construction of Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East are suspected of embezzlement, RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday, citing local Interior Ministry branch.

Similar charges were brought earlier against executives of TMK (Pacific Bridge Building Company), where wage arrears for January-March 2015 exceeded 111 million rubles ($2.2 million).

According to the Far Eastern department of the Prosecutor General’s Office, wage arrears have not yet been paid to the workers of several companies as of Tuesday. 

The department said that over 1,600 violations of labor law, including wage arrears, had been found since the start of the construction project. One of the reasons was inefficient monitoring of its affiliates and subcontractors by Dalspetsstroy, a construction company at the Federal Agency for Special Construction (Spetsstroy). Prosecutors are auditing these companies for compliance with labor laws. 

Deputy Prosecutor General Yury Gulyagin has initiated cases against the debtor companies Sistemy i Seti (Systems and Grids), StroyServisRemont, Granit and construction engineering company RegionStroyEngineering. He has also warned the directors of these and other companies against violating wage laws.

The Vostochny Space Center is under construction near Uglegorsk in the Amur Region in the Russian Far East. The first carrier rocket is planned to be launched this year, and the first manned mission is scheduled for 2018. The facility is to be finished by November 30, 2015.

Dalspetsstroy management has repeatedly reported that the project was behind schedule at some sites but promised to catch up soon. The Dalspetsstroy director was fired in 2013, when it was found that the government had not received complete information about the delays.