A top manager of Rosatom’s uranium-producing subsidiary Atomredmetzoloto, or ARMZ, lost his job and its president was reprimanded for an overly extravagant New Year’s party.
The procurement manager for ARMZ was relieved of his post Tuesday after Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin ordered an investigation at Rosatom.
Rogozin’s interest was piqued by an early January report on Internet-based liberal channel Dozhd TV that the enterprise’s managers planned to spend 15 million rubles (about $480,000) on a lavish entrainment program featuring French singer Patricia Kaas, actors Nonna Grishayeva and Vyacheslav Manucharov and bands including Eros, B2 and Zveri.
Dozhd TV said Monday that its report had prompted an internal Rosatom investigation, which established that the organizers spent “only” 12.5 million rubles on the festivities.
Claiming credit for the investigation on his Twitter feed, Rogozin wrote that the allegations were “confirmed in part,” with Kaas apparently being hired to mark the 20th anniversary of the company’s founding rather than simply the New Year.
Not even that justified such extravagant spending on foreign pop stars, Rogozin wrote. “The management of ARMZ reimbursed the cost of the party out of their personal funds,” he sternly tweeted. “Acting company president [Tigran] Khachaturov has been reprimanded.”
Twelve managers had been ordered to repay 1 million rubles each, Dozhd reported, claiming a “little victory” for the station.
Rogozin said he had ordered “mandatory coordination” for spending on corporate parties among the nuclear monopoly’s affiliates.
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