2 arrested for fraudulent appropriation of state funds, bribery

The Prosecutor General’s Office of Georgia on Friday said it had arrested a director of a private company and a former employee of the Construction Supervision Department of the Municipal Development Fund of Georgia for fraudulent obtaining of a “large amount of state funds” and bribery.

The Office said an investigation conducted by its Criminal Prosecution Division had found the Director of the Alliance LLC, a company that had won state procurement tenders announced by the Fund in 2020 for construction of public schools in the villages of Jandari, Norio and Gamarjveba in Gardabani municipality in the country’s east, had “made a corrupt deal” with a former employee of the Fund’s Construction Supervision Department.

The defendants presented false acceptance acts for completed works and payment certificates for “artificially increased” amounts of work to the Fund between 2021-2022, it added, noting the fraudulent acts had led to ₾6,469,185 ($2,399,549) being deposited to Alliance LLC, with the Director of the company handing ₾45,000 ($16,691) from the amount as a bribe to the former employee of the Fund.

The Office also said a construction and engineering conclusion conducted by National Forensics Bureau had shown the value of the works performed by Alliance LLC at ₾4,216,004 ($1,563,799), leading to a ₾2,253,182 ($835,750) difference with the value of the actually performed works.

The actions also led to prolonged rehabilitation works for the school buildings, forcing students to attend classes at schools located in nearby villages instead, it added.

The Director of the Alliance LLC company has been charged with fraud, production and use of fake official documents and bribery of an official, with the charges involving imprisonment of six to nine years. The former employee of the Construction Supervision Department of the Municipal Development Fund may face up to 15 years in prison for accepting bribe and forgery.