For the ninth day, Mongolians are protesting at Sukhbaatar square against the “coal mafia”, led by ex-President Kh.Battulga who have apparently robbed the public purse of billions of dollars. Today (12 December), Mongolian Cabinet has held irregular meeting and Kh.Nyambaatar, Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs gave daily briefings on the coal theft scandal.

According to him, ‘All contracts related to the state mining company at the heart of the affair, Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi (ETT), were declassified and made public. Most of the contracts were signed based on recommendations in June 2019 of the National Security Council (NSC), which consisted of former president Kh.Battulga. The confidentiality of non-disclosure agreements (NDA) is terminated.

Since the establishment of “Erdenes Tavantolgoi” company, 25,000 vehicles have been involved in coal transportation. The information of the owner of these trucks will be disclosed according to the information registered in the General State Registration Office. As of today, 5,647 vehicles of 150 companies are carrying out short-distance transportation with C permit.

The Cabinet decided to submit an international audit to the finances of “Erdenes Tavantolgoi” company. Therefore, one of the world’s top audit companies will be selected for conducting a comprehensive audit.

The government investigation committee is considering about 1 million tonnes of coal may have been released without registration. During the investigation, it was revealed that 207,000 tons of coal exported to China without Mongolian customs registration between 20 May and 20 June, 2017, inspectors at the time determined that 3,758 coal haul trucks were registered as “empty” at customs.

“Erdenes Tavantolgoi” company has been made sales worth of MNT 12.8 trillion during the 12 years of operation’.