UPDATE: The current head of the General Directorate for the Protection of Children’s Rights(DGETS), Tatiana Oboroc, former interim head of the Education, Youth and Sport Directorate of the Buiucani sector, has been detained by National Anti-corruption Centre (CNA) officers and anti-corruption prosecutors for corruption, according to sources at Ziarul de Gardă.

Original news:
A former interim head of the Buiucani sector’s Education, Youth and Sport Directorate(DETS) and a businessman have been detained for 72 hours by National Anti-Corruption Centre (CNA) officers and anti-corruption prosecutors following raids on 1 March. The prosecutions were carried out in criminal cases, initiated on active and passive bribery offences, with both persons suspected of fraud in public procurement procedures.

According to CNA, during the criminal proceedings, it was found that the administrator of a construction company, having a prior agreement with public persons from the General Directorate of Education, Youth and Sport and the Chisinau Territorial Directorates, responsible for the public procurement process, offered, and the latter accepted and received financial means to designate the company as the winner in the tenders for the purchase of repair works of preschool, primary, secondary and extracurricular education institutions, organized by DGETS.

“According to the materials of the case, the economic agent participated in the tenders, organized by DGETS and Chisinau Territorial Directorates, proposing the lowest price for services, thus becoming the winner. Subsequently, the company intervened with a request to increase the cost of the services provided, and public persons from DGETS and Chisinau Territorial Directorates as members of the purchasing group accepted to increase the budgets by up to 50 percent of the initial cost in exchange for illicit remunerations.

“Thus, within the framework of the investigations, the prior agreement between the interim head of DETS Buiucani and the administrator of the construction company was documented, as a result of which the latter obtained the contract to provide services for the repair of access ramps in 9 educational institutions. As a reward, on November 2, 2022, the economic agent would have transmitted to the DETS Buiucani official the amount of 174,000 lei, and on November 22, 2022 another amount of 52,000 lei,” the CNA announces.

During the same period, according to the CNA, the winner of the contract would have transmitted 20 000 lei to an engineer of the Buiucani Education, Youth and Sport Department, so that he would approve unsatisfactory construction works in the interest of the economic agent, and another 25 000 lei would have been transmitted to the DETS Ciocana engineer for the approval of unsatisfactory construction works, as well as for favouring the economic agent to obtain new contracts.

In order to effectively document and obtain relevant data for the criminal case, as well as to gather evidence, 8 searches were carried out today at the homes, cars and offices of officials from DETS Buiucani, DETS Ciocana, as well as at the construction company’s decision makers. As a result, the former head of DETS Buiucani and the administrator of the construction company were detained for 72 hours.

All persons are presumed innocent until a final and irrevocable court decision is rendered.