Representatives of ASEM Organizing Office deny violation in the summit’s spending

Former Chief of Staff of the President P.Tsagaan and former Mayor of Ulaanbaatar E.Bat-Uul held a press conference about a report released by the Mongolian National Audit Office (MNAO) on violation of spending for the 11th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM11), which was hosted in Ulaanbaatar two years ago.

The MNAO reported last year that it had found violations of more than 14.8 billion MNT during its audit of the budget for ASEM11, and reported few days ago, violations of 23 billion MNT in the summit’s spending.

P.Tsagaan emphasized that MNAO mislead people by releasing a “false” report about the summit’s spending, and the office is undermining the efforts of nearly 40,000 people who made contributions to the organization of the summit.

“As the office’s head stole 750 million MNT from the Fund to Develop Small and Mediumsized Enterprises in collaboration with his partners, he is capable of making an illegal decision, and I don’t trust that person will administrate a crucial state organization,” said P.Tsagaan.

P.Tsagaan claimed that the office has to stop spreading “fake” news about the ASEM Organizing Office.

E.Bat-Uul noted that since the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongolia did not hold a high-level political dialogue forum like ASEM11, but few are blaming people that organized the summit for a political purpose.

Former Mayor of Khan-Uul District J.Gankhuyag joined the press conference, and key officials that organized the summit were replaced with other officials before the summit as the Mongolian People’s Party won the 2016 parliamentary elections.

J.Gankhuyag noted that as a lot of incumbent government officials did not submit their operational and fiscal reports to state authorities and their predecessors took the blame for violation in budgetary spending for the summit.

He added that after the summit, all government officials were responsible for presenting relevant state authorities with their reports, and those who were not in office during the summit and later joined the summit’s preparation processes did not transfer the state’s assets used in the summit to other state authorities.