The Russian space agency Roscosmos, whose reputation had already suffered from the failure of a Soyuz rocket last month, was targeted on Sunday by the country's court of auditors for financial irregularities, including "stolen" billions .
"We have serious problems with Roscosmos," said the chairman of the Accounts Chamber, Alexei Kudrin, in television commentaries.
"The procurement procedures are bad, the prices are too high, many projects are unfinished or stopped, the funds are unused for months and several billion have been lost – stolen – and investigations are ongoing," added the former Minister of Finance.
A report released in 2017 by the court reported a total of 151 irregularities in the accounts of the space agency, for a total of 785.5 billion rubles ($ 11.9 billion), reported the l & # 39; Russian news agency.
Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin called on the Audit Chamber to conduct a sector audit and approve an anti-corruption plan.
Russia's space program has had problems in recent years, but no life has been lost.
On October 11, a Soyuz rocket failure forced Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin and American astronaut Nick Hague to land an emergency landing shortly after takeoff in Kazakhstan. The couple escaped unscathed.
It was the first such incident in Russia's post-Soviet history – an unprecedented setback for the country's space industry.
The Soviet-designed Soyuz rocket is currently the only lifeline in the world leading to the International Space Station.
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Last updated: Monday, November 26, 2018 KSA 02:01 – GMT 23:01
