Mess in Petropavl Akimat: Official Embezzled 2 Billion Tenge for Building One Overpass

Photo: politico.kz The Department of the Agency for Financial Monitoring in the North Kazakhstan Region reported that regional officials and a contractor colluded and embezzled 2 billion tenge out of 5.4 billion tenge allocated for the construction of a road overpass in Petropavl, reports Todayinfo.kz news agency. According to the source, in August 2023, the institution "Department of Housing and Communal Services, Passenger Transport and Highways" of the Petropavl city akimat and "BUKA" LLP entered into a contract for the construction of a road overpass worth a total of 5.4 billion tenge.

"During the execution of the contract, the contractor greatly delayed the work. According to the investigation, the director of the contractor, colluding with the officials of the customer, drew up and signed fake acts on the actual volume of work performed. Based on these documents, budget funds were unreasonably transferred to the contractor's account. As a result of illegal actions, the state suffered damage of over 2 billion tenge," the AFM reports.

The court seized 24 vehicles and special equipment worth over 270 million tenge belonging to the parties involved in this crime. The suspect is in custody.