In 1959, a shooting model designed by the legendary Soviet weapons designer M. T. Kalashnikov was proposed as a prototype sniper rifle. In the technical documentation, the product is listed as SVK (Kalashnikov sniper rifle). This rifle unit was developed in two versions. The rifles differed in their handles: pistol and semi-pistol types. Information about the history of creation, design and tactical and technical characteristics of the SVK rifle is presented in this article.
History of creation
According to military experts, even on the eve of the Great Patriotic War, Soviet gunsmiths made several attempts to replace the magazine-type sniper rifle. In 1942, the self-loading SVT-40 was discontinued. They decided to keep the rifle with magazine ammunition from 1930 in service. It was planned that in the future its place would be taken by a more advanced self-loading rifle, adapted to fire the R 7.62x54 mm cartridge. Work in this direction began only in 1958.
The Main Rocket and Artillery Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Defense (GRAU) announced a competition for the design of such a rifle. Several options for sniper rifle units were presented to the commission for consideration. The participants in the competition were Dragunov E.F., Konstantinov A.S., Simonov S.G. and Kalashnikov M.T. At that time, the Kalashnikov assault rifle was already widely used by Red Army soldiers. In addition, a light machine gun and a modernized machine gun from this designer were tested. When designing the new SVK sniper rifle, the Soviet gunsmith tried to unify it as much as possible for AKM and RPK.
The essence and significance of the internal control system
It was previously noted that by the mid-50s of the twentieth century, auditors of foreign companies realized that during the audit it was necessary to study not only documents and reporting, but also the very organization of economic and technological processes. Financial statements are more adequate (closer to the truth) the more effective internal control is, and this in turn implies that the auditor can spend significantly less effort to carry out effective work. In turn, the more effective the control, the more reason it has to hope that the information in the financial report can be useful to decision makers.
Internal control system (ICS) —
This is the organizational system and control methods used to process banking transactions.
ICS can be considered as a set of procedures, organizational measures and techniques adopted by management to control the correct and efficient conduct of financial and economic activities. It also includes the execution of orders and instructions of management, division of responsibilities, ensuring the safety of the company’s property and compliance with legal requirements, preventing and identifying fraud and errors, ensuring the accuracy and completeness of accounting records, as well as the timeliness of preparation of reliable financial information in the interests of the bank’s shareholders, depositors, clients.
The double entry system underlying accounting already determines one of the stages of the internal control system and implements the procedure for registering transactions, and also provides control over their implementation.
The purpose of the ICS is to prevent
errors and abuses. Erroneous inaccurate information can arise both at the primary level and at any stage of document processing. To avoid errors, it is necessary to use special methods of primary control both at the stage of obtaining and recording primary information, and at subsequent stages of their processing. The internal control system of any operation combines its organization, office work, procedure, accounting, archiving of documents for a specific operation, as well as preliminary, current and subsequent control.
Research and evaluation of internal control have a precise purpose - to determine the nature, scope and frequency of tests in order to effectively
conducting an audit.
In addition, the study of internal control systems includes the study of all operations and procedures of a business entity, and not just those that may directly or indirectly affect the balance sheet for which reliability is intended to be expressed.
When studying the internal control system, it is necessary to analyze the process of organizing work and draw conclusions in the following areas:
·Are employees competent and reliable?
·Is the separation of duties effective?
·Are paperwork and accounting properly organized?
·what is the organization of procedures for authorizing transactions.
The most important characteristic of a bank's internal control system is the competence of personnel.
Personnel problems seriously affect the internal control system. For example, frequent turnover of accounting personnel leads to the fact that accounting and control functions are performed by people who do not have sufficient experience and therefore make mistakes. This factor is always alarming, reduces the effectiveness of the internal control system and increases the audit risk. The auditor must determine the competence and integrity of employees, their rights and responsibilities.
The internal control system should begin with control over the selection and placement of personnel. At the same time, it is necessary to exclude the possibility of hiring persons with a dubious business and public reputation. To do this, it is necessary to develop qualification and personal criteria in relation to the content of the work and the scope of responsibility. In this case, labor agreements concluded with employees must be considered; availability of a document regulating the employee’s job responsibilities before working in this institution.
Functional separation of duties
between those who carry out the accounting and control procedure and those who are responsible for working with assets and liabilities in the bank is also fundamental to the characteristics of the internal control system. In this case, responsibilities must be distributed in such a way that no employee performs two or more functions of authorization, registration, security, accounting, etc. In addition, if each department keeps records of its activities, along with its main operations, this will be a violation. Separation of duties ensures that there is no deliberate misrepresentation of information, since such misrepresentation requires the collusion of several persons. Coordination makes it easier to detect and correct unintentional errors.
It is undesirable for one employee, for example, the head of a department, to carry out passive operations (attracting deposits) and active operations to allocate resources, since this allows the employee to manipulate financial information for personal gain or concealing losses. It is also undesirable for one employee to combine responsibilities for maintaining accounts of legal entities and individuals, issuing permission to pay off funds in order to repay a debt, and directly making payments in other areas of potential conflict of interest.
Accounting and recording of transactions
in most banks they are carried out using a computer system. However, it is important that they comply with the regulations developed by the bank and take into account the authorization of transactions, division of duties, office work and other issues related to accounting (for example, transactions should be reflected during or immediately after their execution, since with a large time interval between transactions transactions and their recording increases the likelihood of error; documents and records must be drawn up in such a way that there is no ambiguous interpretation, etc.). The completeness and accuracy of recording transactions is very important.
An effective accounting system includes appropriate methods and recording of the following:
— determination and recording of data on all business transactions;
— a description of the progress of business transactions over time, indicating detailed information sufficient for the preparation of financial statements;
— determination of the cost of a business transaction to ensure that it corresponds to the duration of the period for drawing up accounting documents;
— correct reflection and presentation of information contained in financial reports for a business transaction.
Transaction authorization system
in each bank is developed taking into account its organizational structure, existing regulatory guidelines, the experience of the given bank, etc. Persons exercising control over the execution of transactions cannot authorize them.
As part of the issue of authorization, it can be noted that if someone from management is given the right to authorize transactions, record them in accounting and exercise control, then the degree of risk in carrying out this operation may be too high.
When assessing the control system, it is necessary to consider whether there are elements of internal control:
— separation of functions or responsibilities;
— protection of information (we must ensure that registered information cannot be changed);
— authorization of operations (we develop a scheme and study it);
- limitation of powers (to prevent something and not allow something to happen, i.e. establishing some kind of limits);
— control over accounting systems;
a) completeness
b) accuracy
— restriction of access to assets (the most valuable thing in a bank is documentation);
— codes of conduct;
— external supervision;
— general supervision by management (consistent with the authorization of authority. The manager should check, for example, the authorization and purchase of materials by the same person, etc.);
- internal audit.
When considering these elements of internal control, you should pay attention to whether it is useless. For example, when issuing a loan, if all operations are entrusted to the head of the department, or when purchasing material assets, if all relevant operations are performed by a financially responsible person. Lack of proper authorization and segregation of duties, coupled with insufficient implementation of other elements of the internal control system, can lead to errors or abuses. When identifying the organization of such an internal control system, the auditor should expand its audit program to ensure the correctness and reliability of operations in these matters.
In international practice, there are two different approaches to assessing internal control: system-oriented and probabilistic.
System-oriented approach
in international practice it forms the basis of current standards and instructions. Its essence boils down to the fact that by analyzing the internal control system, the auditor can draw a conclusion about its functioning and determine the scope of the audit (at the first stage of the audit). However, a system-oriented approach requires not only a preliminary check of the internal control system (after which there remains the possibility that internal control is ineffective), but also its further study during the audit (at the second stage of the audit). During such a review, it should be ensured that all required procedures, approvals and necessary sanctions were applied in accordance with the established procedure.
Probabilistic approach
based on taking into account the degree of risk, is newer than the first and complements it. It is based not only on the study of internal control systems, but also on determining the risk of ineffectiveness of the internal control system. In addition, this approach involves analyzing and considering risk factors for the ineffectiveness of the internal control system.
From an audit point of view, assessing the effectiveness of the internal control system consists of assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the control of an economic entity. It can be considered effective if, firstly, it promptly warns about the occurrence of unreliable information, and secondly, it quickly identifies unreliable information.
When assessing the effectiveness of the internal control system, the so-called cumulative effect
strengths and weaknesses of control. For example, even if a system or part of a system is judged to be generally effective, auditors assess the potential for abuse in a particular audit area through control procedures.
If the auditor considers that he cannot express full or partial confidence in the internal control system or in its specific areas, then it is necessary to note whether there are other forms of control over its activities. The reasons for identified deficiencies in the internal control system are often hidden and in order to identify them, in-depth analysis, perseverance and insight of the auditor are required. Weaknesses in a control system alone can mean much more serious organizational problems than meets the eye.
Once the causes of the deficiency have been identified, it is necessary to determine how often this type of deficiency could occur. This usually depends on the specific reasons for the appearance of this deficiency. For example, the reasons for errors in the calculation of interest credited to a client's account may be the following: an error in office work, which can be assumed in a given population, or the use of an incorrect table of interest rates for a certain type of account, which can occur systematically in relation to a given group of accounts, etc. .d.
Result
In 1959, two versions of the SVK rifle were presented to the attention of the expert commission. One sample was equipped with a buttstock that had a semi-pistol neck and a special influx on the left side under the shooter’s cheek. This model has a gas release mechanism, completely covered by the barrel lining.
In an effort to unify the SVK as much as possible under the AK already in use, the designer equipped the sniper rifle with a stock similar to the Kalashnikov assault rifle. The second sample has a pistol grip. When designing the receiver, its cover, the safety lever and open sights, Kalashnikov also focused on the AK design.
About the device
According to experts, the SVK rifle and the Dragunov rifle unit were similar to the AK with their automatic gas engine and the method of locking the barrel channel. However, there were differences between these weapons.
In the SVK rifle, Kalashnikov decided not to connect the bolt frame and the rod. The latter has a short stroke and is combined with a gas piston. The SVK turned out to be a larger version of the AK, modified to use more powerful R 7.62x54 mm cartridges. The trigger mechanism provides for firing exclusively single shots. The right side of the receiver became the location for the fire mode switch fuse.
Ammunition in the amount of 10 pieces is contained in replaceable box magazines. Thanks to the presence of special grooves in front of the bolt frame and a short cover on the receiver, it became possible to carry equipment from the clip of the attached magazine. The optical sight is mounted on a bracket, the place for which is allocated on the left side of the receiver. The SVK was produced with a split stock, consisting of a wooden butt, fore-end and receiver lining.
About tactical and technical characteristics
The indicators are:
- SVK is a type of sniper rifle.
- The first sample with empty ammunition weighed 4.226 kg, the second - 4 kg.
- The length of the rifle is 115.5 cm (first version) and 110 cm - sample No. 2.
- In both cases, the trunk length did not exceed 60 cm.
- Shooting is carried out with a 7.62x54 mm R cartridge.
- The SVK works by removing powder gases with a rotating bolt.
- Shooting from a rifle of the first type is effective at a distance of up to 700 m, the second - 1 thousand m.
- Store-bought ammunition.
- SVK with an open sight. In addition, the design of the rifle provides for the use of an additional optical lens.
Peculiarities
SVK rightfully belongs to the so-called “Markman” rifles (an intermediate link between conventional small arms and high-precision non-automatic sniper rifles).
The Kalashnikov rifle is adapted for both right-handed and left-handed people, as it has bilateral controls.
The rifle may include a folding bipod and a quick-detachable “tactical silencer.”
In September 2016, the rifle was still at the factory testing stage and in the future should replace the legendary Dragunov SVD.
This is interesting: the name SVK came from a prototype Kalashnikov sniper rifle from 1959.
But then, despite better weight and size indicators than the SVD, the weapon was never accepted for service due to non-compliance with the requirements for accuracy of fire.
