The results of the cotton harvesting campaign are now being summed up to pay for the work of land tenants in the agricultural associations. The revenues generated by many families engaged in cotton growing were tantamount to the expenditures whereas some families incurred losses.
A cotton grower from the agricultural association “Lebap” in Sayat etrap of Lebap velayat told a correspondent of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” how the chief accountant of the association A.R.
settled accounts with him:“Pursuant to the agreement, I was supposed to be paid 1400 manats per ton of the 1st grade cotton, but I received only 790 manats.
The accountant said that he had deducted some amounts of money for fertilizers, the use of equipment, fees paid to the association etc.However, apart from the fertilizers which had been allocated and the fuels, other tenants and I were forced to purchase additional fertilizers and carry out additional agro-engineering works, such as land cultivation.
The cash has now been retained from me once again as if these works had been done at the expense of the agricultural association”.
The land tenants said that criminal charges had been previously initiated against the accountant (in 2004 and 2009 during his employment in the etrap administration “Turkmenmallary”) but he managed to escape punishment both times. When he joined the association “Lebap”, he convinced the Chairperson to allocate him 10 hectares of land for personal use.
Judging by the fact that a large number of wheat and cotton producers find themselves to be in a similar situation, it is not only the accountants who should be held accountable.
“When on an annual basis falsified records of hundreds of tons of non-existent cotton crops are drawn up by the government in an attempt to demonstrate prosperity, the authorities are not concerned about our problems”, the land tenant complained.