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In Kaliningrad Region former first deputy head of tender agency to stand trial for attempted grand bribe taking and abuse of office

The investigating bodies of the Russia’s Investigative Committee for the Kaliningrad Region have finished investigating a criminal case against first deputy head of the Kaliningrad Region Tender Agency Valentin Ayvazyan. He is charged with attempted bribe taking on an especially large scale (part 3 of article 30, part 6 of article 290 of the RF Penal Code) and abuse of official authorities (part 1 of article 285).

According to investigators, in March 2013, Ayvazyan acting on a request of a person he had confidential relationships, motivated by his personal interest agreed to assist a certain construction organization to win a tender for a 223 million worth municipal contract on building a kindergarten in the town of Baltiysk in the Kaliningrad Region. To do that, the official used his authority of the chairman of the tender commission acting against interests of his service when considering applications filed by other construction organizations, personally took measures to ensure that the organization represented by his friend won the tender.

Moreover, according to the investigators, between October and December 2012, the accused, being the chairman of the tender commission of the Kaliningrad Region Tender Agency out of mercenary motive assisted leadership of a construction company to win a tender for concluding a municipal contract on executing works at the project “Building a sewage collector for a composite building of Southeastern block in Kaliningrad”. The contract was worth over 500 million rubles. The investigators have found out that the official through a mediator set a price of at least 4 million 400 thousand rubles for his services in eliminating competitors.

The investigators believe that the accused abused his authority of the chairman of the tender commission and first deputy head of the Tender Agency rejected the applications on the stage of consideration. As a result, the construction firm, who interests were lobbied by the accused, won the tender. After the firm got the right to conclude the contract on sewage collector, someone of the firm’s leadership, following the agreement reached with the middleman transferred the bribe to the account of a sole proprietor disguising it as payment for advisory services.

The investigators also believe that in early April 2013, the accused realizing that he had fulfilled all the illegal actions in the interests of the construction organization, asked one of his relatives to withdraw 1 million rubles from the account and give it to him. On 10 April 2013, the relative was detained by the officers of the Kaliningrad Region Office of the Federal Security Service while receiving the money in a commercial bank in the town of Sovetsk, Kaliningrad Region. The accused and his middleman were detained later. Facing the charges the official was dismissed.

The decision to start a criminal investigation had been made based on the results of investigating and search operations carried out by the officers of the Kaliningrad Region Office of the Federal Security Service.

The investigators have gathered enough evidence, therefore, the criminal case with the approved indictment has been sent to court to be tried on the merits.