The State Service for Combating Economic Crimes, jointly with the Prosecutor General’s Office, detected a corrupt scheme on towing of vehicles. Press service of the financial police informed 24.kg news agency.
The scheme involves officials of the Main Road Safety Department, the State Agency of Antimonopoly Regulation and Portal Group Company.
«In December 2017, a tender commission of the Main Road Safety Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs held a formal competition for towing services in the amount of 1 som on the state procurement portal to lobby the interests of Portal Group. Earlier, the cost of services in the amount of 1,500 for towing of a vehicle was set and agreed with the State Antimonopoly Agency. The tender was declared invalid due to the lack of candidates. After that, an agreement was signed with the management of Portal Group Company. This fact is a gross violation of the law on state procurement, as a previously determined amount should have been indicated,» the message says.
In addition, the cost of towing now is 1,350 soms. At the same time, two cars are being taken away by one tow truck at the same time, which drastically affects the formation of the cost of towing services. The cost of towing of vehicles in each city should be based on its size. But now it is the same throughout the country.
According to the calculations of independent auditors and specialists in the field of transportation and safety on the roads, the cost of towing of one car should not exceed 600 soms.
«Operational investigative measures showed that the State Antimonopoly Agency illegally coordinated and set the cost of the towing services without relevant expert opinions. In addition, towing monitoring has been conducted for six days as an experiment. During this period, 306 cars have been towed, but protocols were drawn up only on 106 cars. For six days, the state suffered material damage in the amount of 200,000 soms. As a result, the damage to the state for 6 months is estimated at 9.8 million soms,» financial police told.
On November 20, 2018, the Prosecutor General’s Office opened a criminal case under articles 166 — fraud and 304 — abuse of official position of the Criminal Code. The investigation is underway.
