"President Yanukovych has begun the audit from himself. One of the first orders he made as the newly elected head of state was to significantly reduce the number of public servants in the country," Akimova told a Ukrainian TV channel. "When we talk about corruption, putting someone in jail is not the goal. The goal is to change the general approach to public service.
"I believe clarifying how the budget money was spent is a logical step. We need to make this first step in order to get people accustomed to the audit as a necessary procedure," Akimova said. "Every ruling power - past, present or future - has to understand that no abuse of authorities can remain uncovered," she concluded.
Mrs. Akimova's statements came amidst the allegations from the opposition leaders who claim the audit in question was incompetent and politically biased. However, these representatives of the opposition have not yet denied any of the concrete findings of the audit.
The audit, conducted by three US-based companies, Trout Cacheris PLLC, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer&Feld LLP and Kroll Inc., was released last Thursday, on October 14.
The audit's final report contains hard evidence that Ms. Tymoshenko's government committed fraud and resorted to "classic international money laundering mechanisms" while buying sugar, vaccines, importing expensive foreign cars and even selling carbon credits to other countries.
Subsequently, two lawsuits were filed in the UK and US courts with the aim to claim back the money misspent by Yulia Tymoshenko's government from various companies which had been found involved in the money laundering schemes.
The full text of the report can be accessed at the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine's official web-server: http://minfin.gov.ua/document/274231/report1.pdf
Source: Press Office of the President of Ukraine
