DUSHANBE, July 27, Asia-Plus — Since the beginning of the year, the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption has revealed 63 corruption-related crimes, the anticorruption agency chief Sherkhon Salimov remarked at a news conference in Dushanbe today.   

According to him, the totaled included 37 serious and especially serious crimes.  “13 criminal proceedings have been instituted on charges of bribery,” said Salimov, “10 of these criminal proceedings have been instituted against civil servants and three others against top managers of commercial companies.”  

“Damage caused by these crimes has amounted to 5.6 million somonis; 1.3 million somonis from this amount have already been recovered,” the anticorruption agency chief said.  

According to the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption, 240 inspections carried out by the agency over the report period have revealed totaling 25,753,780 somonis’ worth of damage caused to the country’s economy.  Of this amount, 6.413 million somonis have to date been recovered.    113 materials totaling 17,980,481 somonis have been brought to the law enforcement agencies, according to Salimov.  

Asked whether any high-ranking civil servant has been detained for corruption, Salimov said that the agency had been empowered to conduct investigation and search operations recently and the main work in this direction is still in the future.  However, he confirmed information that serious shortcomings had been revealed in work of two former ministries – the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Ministry of Communications – and their former heads, Said Zuvaydov and Mirzo Zyoyev, had been invited to the anticorruption agency for questioning.  “I will note that the question is not of instituting criminal proceedings against them,” he stressed.  

He also denied rumors that criminal proceedings had allegedly been instituted against Khol Mashrabov, the former head of Rudaki district, as unfounded.