At least 23 persons, public functionaries and economic entities, are suspected of fixing tender contests to provide schools and kindergartens of Chisinau with food products, chief of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office Viorel Morari stated in a press briefing, quoted by IPN.

According to him, nine of those who were remanded in the custody of the National Anticorruption Center (NAC) are public functionaries, while the others are representatives of business entities. The investigations into public tender contest rigging were opened in March 2016. Later, there were started 30 criminal cases over abuse of power, passive corruption, influence peddling and misuse of authority. The functionaries took about 10,000 lei bribe for fixing a tender contest.

In the press briefing, Bogdan Zumbreanu, head of the NAC Prosecution Department, said 46 searches were performed at the offices and homes of the suspects. A woman suspect tried to destroy evidence during the search.

Zumbreanu noted that initially they wanted to make known the names of the suspects, but then decided to hide their identity for security reasons. “There are children who were hospitalized with food poisoning. Some of the parents could take revenge,” he stated, adding they possess video recordings of telephone conversations of public functionaries and businessman, which show that these knew that spoiled and expired food products will be delivered to schools and kindergartens and spoiled products were found in the storehouse of a businessman involved in this case.