The numbers are not adding up at Tajikistan’s signature infrastructure project, the Rogun Dam. An independent audit of the project’s financial statements has found a $540 million accounting gap and has determined that electricity-production operations at the work-in-progress facility are losing money.

Controversy is nothing new for the Rogun project, which if completed to its maximum specifications would become the world’s tallest dam. Critics argue the dam is a white elephant in the making that threatens to upend a delicate regional water balance that causes economic and social harm. Tajik officials, meanwhile, argue that Rogun’s completion and full operation will give the country a greater degree of economic independence, ensuring regular power supplies and providing much-needed revenue from electricity exports.

According to a report published by the Asia-Plus news agency, the audit, performed by a local affiliate of the global firm Baker Tilly International, gave Rogun’s financial statements for the 2024 fiscal year a “qualified opinion.” That means the firm could not confirm that the numbers presented in Rogun’s books were completely accurate.

Perhaps the most alarming aspect of the report is Baker Tilly’s warning about Rogun’s viability as a going concern moving forward. It cites the hesitation of international lenders to continue providing funding for Rogun’s construction until officials come up with a viable plan to pay back billions in loans without substantially raising the public debt.

Baker Tilly auditors did “not participate in the planned and annual inventories of cash, fixed assets, and inventories” at the end of 2024, thus increasing “the risk of misstatement in the financial statements,” Asia-Plus reported. The report did not elaborate on a reason for the absence of Baker Tilley representatives’ participation in what are normally routine audit procedures.

The audit firm’s report stated that Rogun had a net positive cash flow. Even so it estimated that Rogun experienced a net loss of about $30 million in 2024, an improvement over the previous year’s net loss of almost $36 million. Baker Tilly auditors also noted that Rogun management failed to provide information that would allow auditors to determine an accurate value of the entity’s fixed assets. The entity claimed its total assets amounted to about $5.3 billion.