In Kazakhstan, corruption has reached a cosmic scale
The Anti-Corruption Agency of Kazakhstan has detected the theft of budget funds on cosmic scale, in the literal sense of the word.
According to the press service of the department, the Anti-Corruption Service of Nur-Sultan, during the investigation of the theft of budget funds allocated for the implementation of the project “ Earth Remote Sensing Space System”, revealed abuse of power by the former president of the company “Kazakhstan Garysh Sapary” and vice-chairman of the National Space Agency (Kazcosmos).
In particular, they are suspected of illegally concluding a contract with the French company “EADS Astrium” for the supply of two Earth remote sensing satellites worth 260 million Euros without a financial and economic justification for the specified amount.
“At the same time, another former president of the company, and subsequently the vice minister of one of the ministries, is suspected of unreasonably placing temporarily usable funds in the amount of $4.5 million in the commercial bank “Bank of Astana”, which were not returned as a result of default of the mentioned bank,” the Anti-corruption department also added.
At the same time, it’s noted that during the investigation, searches were carried out in the apartments of the indicated citizens and employees of “Kazakhstan Garysh Sapary” and “Kazkosmos”, during which items and documents, relevant to the case, were seized.
It should also be noted that another high-profile corruption case is being investigated by the Anti-Corruption Service within the walls of the Ministry of Culture and Sports.
According to the Agency, the former head of the Department of Cultural and Art Affairs is suspected of embezzlement of budget funds on an especially large scale by signing acts of rendered services with inflated cost and unjustified transfer of funds for state financing of cinematography.
Against this background, the appetites of the policemen from the West Kazakhstan region, whom the anti-corruption fighters caught in bribes, look very modest. So, the commander of the battalion of patrol police, M. Murzagaliev, was deprived of his captain’s rank and was sentenced to a fine of $1000 for repeatedly receiving bribes for not bringing drivers to administrative responsibility.
Also, the inspector of the same patrol police battalion, M. Gabdullin, was deprived of his captain rank for similar crimes. True, the amount of the fine that he got was slightly more – $3000. Both policemen were fired from the police.
