MOSCOW, June 1 (RAPSI) – The Prosecutor General’s Office has revealed over 130 million rubles ($2.5 million) worth of acquisition violations at the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadaster and Cartography (Rosreestr), including some that are part of the federal targeted program for maintaining, developing and using the Glonass system in 2012-2020, Izvestia newspaper reported on Monday.
According to the newspaper, in 2014 Rosreestr transferred about 200 million rubles ($3.8 million) in payments under three contracts with JSC Roscartography carried out as part of the Glonass program. Under the contracts, Roscartography was to compile digital city plans and to review digital navigation and topographic maps.
Prosecutors found that 47 percent of the work implemented under the contracts was of inferior technical standards. For example, digital topographic maps provided incorrect latitudes, duplicate data, and even indicated classified facilities. The cost of the substandard work was assessed at over over130 million rubles ($2.5 million).
However, Rosreestr accepted these contracts as fully meeting the required standards, the newspaper writes.
Also, prosecutors found that in 2014 Rosreestr invested only 51 percent of the 610.26 million rubles ($11.5 million) allocated for the Glonass satellite program.
Prosecutors say part of the guilt for the failure to implement the Glonass program rests with the space agency Roscosmos, which neglected its commitments and authority as a state contractor under the program and failed to properly amend it when it became necessary.
The Global Navigation Satellite System (Glonass), which was officially launched in 1993, is a Russian counterpart to the US Global Positioning System (GPS). It provides data for real-time positioning and speed of surface, sea and air objects to within an accuracy of one meter.
The Glonass program was initiated in the 1970s but underwent a radical revamp in 2001. The 24 satellites comprising the system were put into orbit by 2010, though only after several costly malfunctions and launch failures by carrier rockets. The program has cost 140 billion rubles ($2.6 billion) to date, and its budget for 2012-2020 stands at a further 326 billion rubles ($6.15 billion).