Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

A meeting of the supervisory body of Azerbaijan's state oil fund SOFAZ, held on July 25, discussed the Fund's annual report and audited financial statements for the year 2012, and a report on execution of the Fund's 2012 budget.

The meeting was chaired by Artur Rasizade, Azerbaijan's Prime Minister and Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

The Supervisory Board approved SOFAZ's 2012 performance report submitted by the executive director of the Fund and the auditor's (Ernst & Young) report. The Board deemed them satisfactory and decided to submit the 2012 draft budget of the Fund to the Azerbaijani President for approval.

Rasizade was re-elected as the Chairman-in-Office of the Board.

SOFAZ held a competitive bidding procedure aimed at selecting a company for auditing its financial statements for 2013-2015.

Leading international audit companies operating in Azerbaijan had been invited to participate in the bidding. After the evaluation of the bids, pursuant to the Statutory Regulations of the State Oil Fund, PriceWaterhouseCoopers was chosen as the auditor of the Fund's financial statements for 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Ernst & Young company was SOFAZ's auditor for the previous three years.

Assets of SOFAZ, which is tasked to acculmulate the resource-rich South Caucasus republic's oil revenues, hit 26.9 billion manats in 2012 compared to over 23.5 billion manats in 2011.

About 26.01 billion manats of the total amount of assets fell to current assets and long-term assets made up about 876.63 million manats.

SOFAZ received 13.72 billion manats in 2012 compared to 13.67 billion manats in 2011. SOFAZ's expenses made up 10.75 billion manats last year compared to 10.57 billion manats in 2011.

SOFAZ was established in 1999. Its assets were in the amount of $271 million at the time.

Under the company's policy, SOFAZ funds may be used for construction and reconstruction of strategically important infrastructure projects, as well as for the solution of important national issues. From 2001 to 2009, special attention was focused on the development of both the oil sector and the infrastructure of the non-oil sector of the country. At present, SOFAZ funds a number of strategic projects in the irrigation and transport sectors.

SOFAZ also pursues a goal of placing the fund's assets abroad to minimize the negative impact on the economy and prevent 'Dutch disease', to ensure savings for future generations and to maintain the current socio-economic standards of the country.