Municipal authorities arrested for alleged bribe-taking
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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.
Officers of the Anti-corruption Agency under the State Security Service of Georgia have detained an employee of the City Hall, previously an adviser to the Education Minister, Otar Abesadze yesterday.
Georgia – one of Europe’s least corrupt nations
The report by Transparency International showed 12 percent of the Georgian population named corruption/bribery as one of three major problems the country currently faced, while this number was much higher in Georgia's immediate neighbour countries.
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