Kyrgyzstan: head of the Free Economic Zone “Bishkek” was detained for corruption

In Kyrgyzstan, a stable corruption scheme for withdrawing funds from the state institution “Free Economic Zone Bishkek” has been revealed. This was reported by the anti-corruption service of the State Committee for National Security.

It has been established that the responsible persons of the state institution have created a stable scheme for extracting shadow income when organizing public procurement of goods and services. The scheme worked with the involvement of controlled suppliers, who transferred kickbacks from the amount of the concluded contract to the former director.

“The facts of irrational use of money by the General Directorate of FEZ “Bishkek” were also established. It was in the implementation of unreasonable purchases and expenses. In order to implement the corruption mechanism, the annual budget of the General Directorate, provided for the purchase of goods-material assets, was unreasonably overstated,” the State Committee for National Security reported.

In addition, it was found that the Directorate understated contributions to the state budget in the period from 2016 to 2020.

“On the basis of the collected materials, pre-trial proceedings were registered under Article 319 “Corruption” of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic. On January 6, the former Director General of the General Directorate of FEZ “Bishkek” and the Executive Director Duishenbek Irsaliev were detained,” the State Committee specified.

The detainees were placed in the temporary detention center of the State Committee for National Security. The investigation is underway.