UCP charges National Bank’s chairman with machinations with bonuses

Pavel Kalavur is charged with making out huge bonuses to himself in the moment of Belarusian ruble’s devaluation.

It is written in the article posted at the website of the United Civil Party. The full text of the article is following:

- Recently the government of Belarus another major reshuffle took place. Lukashenka’s reshuffling officials from time to time has become usual, no one is surprised by that, and all the faces are familiar, as the substitutes' bench is very short: today you are an unsuccessful governor of a region, and tomorrow you are trying your hand at a chemical industry, maybe you will be lucky. But that is another story. Business circles and population were interested by Yermakova-Kalavur’s posts swap most, as the inflation topic is in the air all the time, and the guillotine of devaluation can cut the necks of Belarusian tax payers any moment. They say that Pavel Kalavur is a respectable candidate, and more sane than other newly appointed top officials. It is possible that P. Kalavur is a professional, however one cannot stay indifferent to the information from an anonymous source from the previous place of employment of the top manager, which emerged on the web in 2011, when a crisis was under way. The article was called “People are starving – bonuses are rising”. Mr Kalavur is characterized by this article as a person who will always get his share of the cake even in the most difficult times. However, you can read it yourself (the text follows) and make your conclusions: do we need such expensive, though talented, officials?..

While credit rates are mushrooming, and have exceeded 50% already, people are losing money in devaluation and hyper-inflation of the Belarusian ruble, the bank system is flourishing and developing. That’s the link of our economy which is even thriving in this existing situation. Everybody knows that in this period the capital turnover in the banks of our country has grown considerably.

People are writhing in hysterics, witnessing as their savings are dwindling. They stand in the queues near exchange offices and in the household appliances’ departments in shops, in order to exchange the papers which are getting cheaper with every day, and receive something more reliable, at least a refrigerator. And the government prevented actions of citizens to do so, and even punished them. Ad bank workers have not been hit by these troubles, on the contrary, they have improved their financial situation considerably. We do not mean rank-and-file employees certainly, but the highest ranks, people in the board.

Let us give one example, please meet Pavel Kalavur. He occupied positions of the deputy chairman of the Belarusian National Bank’s board (1993-1999) and the first deputy Chairman of the Board of the National Bank of Belarus (March 1999 – September 2010). Since October 2010 he was the chairman of the board of Vneshekonombank. He was called simply “the man of Lukashenka” in the bank, as after he became the chairman, he quickly invited his buddies from the National Bank and appointed them to leading positions. But it is not surprising now, and is viewed as a norm. and now the most important thing, let’s look at the sums of bonuses Pavel Kalavur gave to himself in the period which was so difficult for the people of Belarus:

March 2011 – Br 125 mln;

May 2011 – Br 116 mln;

August 2011 – Br 121 mln;

October 2011 – 185 mln;

November 2011 – 268 mln.

We ask to pay a special attention to the dates of dramatic upturn of the sums, which completely coincide with the dates of official devaluation of the Belarusian ruble by the National Bank of Belarus. As we see, hyperinflation and devaluation were not really worrying Mr Kalavur, he simply multiplying his bonuses at a calculator. And it’s unlikely that he was standing in the queues near exchange offices in order to have a chance to visit a resort abroad. And a “Kalavur” like him could be found in each bank… That’s how our savings are spent! And here we can recall the advice of Geogre Miloslavsky, a character of the cult comedy film by Leonid Gaiday: “Citizens, save your money in a savings bank! If only you have money….” And do you have money? And where do you keep money?