In Kyrgyzstan, corruption officials got off with fines
Former officials of the State Registration Service (SRS) suspected of corruption during the tender were found guilty of the crime.
The Pervomaisky District court of Bishkek sentenced former State Secretary of the State Registration Service, Daniyar Bakchiev, deputy chairman of the State Registration Service, Ruslanbek Sarybaev, and director of the state-owned company “Infocom”, Talant Abdullaev, accused of corruption in organizing and conducting a tender for the purchase of new generation biometric passport forms.
“Investigation authorities have identified many violations of the requirements of the law of Kyrgyzstan “On public procurement” in the tender with the aim of creating conditions for personal financial gain to the detriment of the interests of the state from the above officials of the SRS,” the State Committee for National Security reports.
As a result, the court found the former officials of the SRS guilty in part 1 of the article 319 “Corruption” of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic and, taking into account extenuating circumstances, sentenced the deputy chairman of the SRS to a fine in the amount of $3865 (270 000 KGS). Talant Abdullaev and the former State Secretary Bakchiev will have to pay $3300 (230 000 KGS) in state revenue.
It is noted that when sentencing the above persons, the court took into account extenuating circumstances, namely, compliance by the accused with all the conditions and obligations stipulated by the concluded cooperation agreements, assistance in the disclosure and investigation of the crime, as well as full confession of guilt and repentance of the crime.
It should be noted that, according to the materials of the pre-trial proceedings, a corruption charge was brought against former chairman of the SRS, Alina Shaikova, who is currently on the international wanted list.
Investigative measures concerning the case of corruption during the tender for the purchase of forms of biometric passports are ongoing.
Recall that in 2019, the issuance of electronic general passports was to begin. In this connection, in 2018, the State Registration Service announced a tender for the purchase of new forms of electronic passports. Five foreign companies took part in it. The Lithuanian “Garsu Pasaulis” became the winner. However, German Muhlbauer ID Services and French IDEMIA France did not agree with the results of the competition. Both companies reported violations during the tender and demanded the annulment of the tender results.
In February 2019, a criminal case was instituted for violations. It is known from the case materials that contrary to the requirements of the Law “On public procurement”, which states that the company that offered the smallest amount should have won the tender, the SRS tender committee chose the Lithuanian “Garsu Pasaulis” offering $13.5 million (940 million 150 thousand KGS). This amount is $3.6 million (273 million 377.7 thousand KGS) more than the amount proposed by another bidder.
