Moldovan deputy finance minister, three business people detained by anticorruption centre

Chisinau, 6 October /MOLDPRES/ - One deputy finance minister and three business people, suspected of having tried to fake public tenders, were detained by anticorruption prosecutors and officers of the National Anticorruption Centre (CNA).  

According to CNA data, the official, knowing that the government instructed the allocation of 15 million lei from the reserve fund to strengthen the technical and material basis of the public medical and sanitary institution, Clinical Republican Hospital, would have attempted to persuade the hospital’s leadership that the transfer of this money depended exclusively on her decision, and for the hospital to benefit from the aforementioned sum, a reward should be offered to her.  

Also, the official would have promised that she can favour the earmarking of an additional similar sum for works of the institution’s repair and restoration. She would also have demanded that representative of the Republican Clinical Hospital favour the persons from companies in the constructions sector at a public tender due to take place on 11 October 2017. The official would have promised the hospital’s representative a five-percent reward of the allocated sum and five percent was to be taken by the deputy finance minister, in exchange for the nomination of these companies as winners.    

In this case, prosecutors and CNA opened a criminal file for passive and active corruption. To confirm the evidence, searches today were made at the homes, automobiles, offices and job offices of the deputy finance minister and economic agents involved. If found guilty, the suspects run the risk of being sentenced up to 15 years of imprisonment and imposed a fine worth up to 500,000 lei, with the deprivation of the right to hold certain positions for a period from 10 to 15 years.  

(Reporter A. Zara, editor A. Raileanu)