A head of department from Chisinau City Hall and a businessman, detained by the NAC and AP for acts of corruption

The former interim head of the Youth Education and Sports Directorate of the Buiucani sector and a businessman were detained by the NAC officers and anti-corruption prosecutors, following searches this morning. The criminal prosecution actions were carried out within the framework of some criminal cases, started on acts of active and passive corruption, both persons being suspected of defrauding public procurement procedures.

During the criminal trial, it was found that the administrator of a construction company, having a prior agreement with public persons from the General Directorate of Youth and Sports Education (GDYSE) and the Chisinau Territorial Directorates, responsible for the public procurement process, offered them, and the latter accepted and received, financial means to designate the company as the winner in the tenders for the purchase of repair works for preschool, primary, high school and extracurricular education institutions, organized by the GDYSE.

According to the case materials, the economic agent participated in the auctions, organized by the GDYSE and the Chisinau Territorial Directorates, proposing the lowest price for services, thus becoming the winner. Later, the company intervened with the request to increase the costs of the services provided, and the public persons within the GDYSE and the Chisinau Territorial Directorates as members of the procurement group accepted the increase of the budgets by up to 50 percent of the initial cost in exchange for illegal remunerations.

Thus, during the investigations, the prior understanding between the interim head of the GDYSE Buiucani and the administrator of the construction company was documented, as a result of which the latter obtained the service contract for the repair of access ramps in 9 educational institutions. As a reward, on November 2, 2022, the economic agent would have sent the GDYSE Buiucani official the sum of 174,000 lei, and on 22.11.2022 another sum of 52,000 lei.

In the same period, the winner of the contract would have sent 20,000 lei to an engineer of the Directorate of Youth Education and Sport Buiucani, for him to approve the low-quality construction works in the interest of the economic agent, and another 25,000 lei would have been sent to the GDYSE Ciocana engineer for approving low-quality construction works, as well as favoring the economic agent in order to obtain new contracts.

For efficient documentation and obtaining relevant data for the criminal case, as well as for the purpose of accumulating evidence, today 8 searches were carried out at the homes, cars and work offices of the GDYSE Buiucani, the GDYSE Ciocana officials, as well as at the factors of decision of the construction company. Following them, the former head of the GDYSE Buiucani and the administrator of the construction company were detained for 72 hours.

The Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office is conducting the criminal investigation.

Every person who has been sharged shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law.