The Anti-Corruption Office on Wednesday, March 23, pressed charges against a senior official at the Interior Ministry and the owner of a company for embezzlement in public procurements and abuse of office, Interior Minister Daniel Lipšic informed a press conference on Thursday. The official, whose name was not revealed by Lipšic, was deputy director of the material-technological department of the Interior Ministry's economy section.
The two men are charged with manipulation of various tenders since 2009. The businessman is also accused of corruption. Both men are in custody, the TASR newswire wrote. The procurements concerned purchases of various equipment for the police. The overall amount of the commissions for the investigated period totalled €2.7 million. The men allegedly divided kickbacks amounting to €178,000. According to Lipšic, the official has worked at the ministry for seven years, so "there is a potential risk that there were more such transactions". The ministry will initiate inspections of all tenders that were carried out under the remit of the charged official.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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