Russia's Audit Chamber, which recently got a new boss, heavyweight policymaker Alexei Kudrin, is demanding a broader mandate to fight corruption, position itself as the know-how centre and the go-to anti-corruption institution, Kudrin said on August 3 as cited by Interfax and Vedomosti daily.

Analysts were disappointed when Kudrin accepted the job as head o of the Audit Chamber, as they were hoping the former finance minister would be given a more obviously powerful role as either special economic advisor to president Vladimir Putin or a deputy prime minister job in the government. However, it appears now that Putin’s plan is to tighten control over the government and use the Audit Chamber as the leading institution to police the spending of a mooted RUB8 trillion of new spending to “transform” the Russian economy. That means giving the Audit Chamber some real teeth for the first time.

Whatever transpires from the changes the Chamber’s star is clearly rising. Formerly a posh but inconsequential post for former prime ministers like Sergei Stepashin, who also ran the state auditing body before disappearing into obscurity, the previous head of the institution was Tatyana Golikova, who was nominated for the Deputy PM for social policy in the new government – one of the most important posts that will oversee a large part of the new spending under Putin’s May Decrees spending extravaganza. But its all a work in progress.

Previous reports claimed that the Audit Chamber will be given carte blanche to inspect regional spending and even to scrutinise the Central Bank of Russia, adding to the speculation that Kremlin sees the institution becoming a key watchdog under Kudrin, clearing the path for efficient spending of Putin's RUB8 trillion development drive. 

Kudrin noted that Chamber's anti-corruption mandate is almost not codified, while he will seek to legally pin the anti-corruption status to the institution that can mobilise its access to state information and accounting systems.

Curbing corruption is the most important of the four goals Kudrin set for his office, along with tying Russia's strategic development goals to the actual budget, enhancing the methods of budgetary control, and informing the public on realisation of national strategic goals. 

More recently Kudrin floated the idea that the Russian government could see a third of state officials and bureaucrats sacked by 2024 thanks to digital technology.