Turkmenistan's president has dismissed several senior officials overseeing the economy as the central Asian state grapples with lower energy prices, state media reported Friday. Strongman President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov on Thursday fired the deputy prime minister in charge of the economy and the minister of economic development, among a number of high-ranking officials in the isolated ex-Soviet state.
"You were always slow in proposing preventive measures against the influence of negative processes in the global economy, resulting in losses for our state," Berdymukhamedov said in comments broadcast on state television, addressing deputy prime minister Annamukhammet Gochyev. Berdymukhamedov said the government had witnessed an increase in corruption cases among officials working in the economic and finance sectors, claiming that criminal proceedings had been launched against 80 bureaucrats since the beginning of the year. Turkmenistan, home to the world's fourth largest known reserves of natural gas, has been hit hard by low energy prices. In a rare admission of the country's woes in April, Berdymukhamedov urged the government to diversify the economy and curb spending. The country has also sharply devalued its currency, the manat, in light of low prices for gas and oil, which make up more than 90 percent of its exports. On Wednesday, Turkmenistan's national gas company accused Russia's energy giant Gazprom of not having paid its debts for shipped volumes of Turkmen gas since the beginning of the year. Gazprom declined to comment on the allegation.
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