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In the Republic of Buryatia, municipal official charged with neglect of duty entailing provision of substandard housing to orphan children to stand trial

The Buryatia Republican Investigations Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia has finished the investigation into Chairman of the Infrastructure Committee of the Kizhinginsky District Administration; he is accused of committing an offense under Part 1 of Article 293 of the Criminal Code of Russia (neglect of duty).

According to the investigation, on October 1, 2013, the official had issued a construction permit for a local construction company to build a residential apartment building intended for forming a specialized housing stock for orphan children. On December 12, 2013, the house consisting of 10 apartments had been finished and the constructor had applied to the Administration with a request for commissioning of the house. The Chairman of the Committee had not found it necessary to visit the object and fulfill his duties of examining the building. He had signed the permit to commission the apartment building without looking, although numerous violations had been made during the construction process. The constructor had failed to ensure mechanical safety of the building which led to numerous vertical cracks throughout the entire height of the walls. The wooden constructions of the roof lacked fire-proof treatment which violated fire safety of the object. Apart from that, there were other shortcomings that could have been revealed during an inspection of the object. As established by the investigation, the residential building is ultimately unfit for year-round residence. As a result of the municipal official’s unlawful actions, apartments in this house were included in specialized housing stock and provided to orphan children and children left without parental care.

Currently, during the preliminary investigation, enough evidence was gathered; therefore, the criminal case with the approved indictment was sent to the court to be tried on the merits.