Russia's Sechin accuses managers over dam disaster

* Deputy PM Sechin accuses dam managers of fraud, corruption

* Sechin says fraudulent company carried out dam work

* Sechin says reform of electricity sector also a factor

By Anastasia Lyrchikova ABAKAN, Russia, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's powerful deputy on Thursday criticised failures by managers of a hydro-electric power station that he said had helped cause Russia's worst dam accident.

Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin accused current and former managers at the Sayano-Shushenskaya dam of using "fraudulent schemes" to win tenders for work at the station, where a turbine accident killed at least 75 people on Aug 17.

Sechin said law enforcement agencies would have to investigate whether corruption by managers had directly led to the turbine accident at the 31-year-old Siberian dam, which is owned by the RusHydro (HYDR.MM) generation company.

He told a meeting of officials and RusHydro bosses that the dam's managers and their relatives had created a fraudulent company which won a tender for works at the dam.

"Unfortunately, providing reliability was not the priority of the former and current heads of the station," Sechin told the meeting in Abakan, the capital of Khakasia in eastern Siberia where the station is located.

A RusHydro spokeswoman said the guilt of anyone involved in the suspect transactions and any link with the accident would have to be determined by law enforcement agencies.

Corruption pervades almost all facets of Russian life, though President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered officials to get to grips with it.

Officials say the dam disaster has illustrated the poor state of Russia's mostly Soviet-era infrastructure and have dismissed claims on an Islamist website that Chechen rebels blew up the turbines.

Russian officials say repairing the dam will cost at least 40 billion roubles ($1.3 billion), which will by financed partly by a RusHydro additional share issue.

Sechin said six turbines at the dam would have to be completely replaced and four more repaired. Engineering firm Power Machines SILM.MM is one of the companies being considered as a possible supplier of the turbines. (Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Angus MacSwan