The Investigative Committee will create a branch to deal with violations connected to the construction projects for the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, the committee’s head, Alexander Bastrykin, said Friday.

The department will hire officers with experience in investigating financial and economic crimes, Bastrykin said, Interfax reported.

“We mustn’t allow embezzlement of state money,” he said.

The federal government has earmarked about $13 billion toward the games, but much of the financing is supposed to come from outside investors. The global economic crisis has deterred many private investors, but state-linked companies have stepped in to fill the gap.

In June, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said the government would not need to direct funds toward the Olympics in 2009 and 2010 because there was enough money from sponsors to cover expenses.

Amid worries that Russia is lagging in its Sochi Olympic preparations, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in early June ousted the head of the state company responsible for Olympics construction, Olimpstroi chief Viktor Kolodyazhny, and replaced him with Baltika’s founder, Taimuraz Bolloyev.