The Belarus website “charter97” reports that the largest foreign project carried out by Belarus construction workers Garlyk mining and refining facility in Turkmenistan has ended in a failure.
As a result, the budget deficit amounted to approximately 200 million dollars with 85 million rubles ($42,7 mln) being overdue as of 1 May, 2018.
According to experts, there are doubtful prospects of recovering the debt from the official Ashgabat since Turkmenistan is undergoing a severe economic crisis.
Moreover, Belarus journalists identified the signs of funds embezzlement during the plant construction. For instance, “Belgorkhimprom” purchased the metal powder of copper slag at 190 dollars per ton, despite the fact that this material was sold three times cheaper in Russia. As a result, the material was purchased at 90 thousand dollars instead of 30.
The information on Turkmenistan’s debt for the construction of Garlyk mining and refining facility in Turkmenistan was first published in May 2017.
Garlyk mining and refining facility was opened in March 2017, two years after the scheduled deadline.
As of May 2017 the plant was operating only at 7% of the projected capacity. Since then official Turkmen media outlets have made no mention of the facility operations.
In September 2017 Belarus media outlets reported that Belarus refused to build the second potassium plant in Turkmenistan.