Municipal authorities arrested for alleged bribe-taking

Local authorities in a western Georgian municipality have been detained for alleged bribe-taking.

The Investigative Service of the Finance Ministry announced today that heads of the financial-budgetary, infrastructural, urban development and architectural departments of one of the municipalities in the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region have been arrested.

They were charged with abuse of authority as well as bribe-taking. Under the Georgian Criminal Code, the first offence sends a person to prison for up to three years and the other – for up to nine years.

The financial police said that all of the individuals charged contacted a contractor private company that was implementing an infrastructural project in the municipality. They offered the company that the amount of work they were asked to do would be increased artificially and would also fake the documents as if the company actually implemented the work.

Police said that the investigation is ongoing to reveal other individuals possibly involved in the crime.