Five teachers of the Excellence Center in Energetics and Electronics of Chisinau are investigated for passive corruption. They are suspected of systematically asking and receiving money from students, IPN reports.

According to the National Anticorruption Center, the teachers intentionally created impediments to students who refused to pay for grades, especially the last-year ones, making them fail the exams. For an exam pass grade, these were obliged to pay 300 to 1,400 lei.

Under the control of officers of the Center, a number of sums of money were passed on to the five teachers. On September 20, two of the five suspects were caught red-handed. The money was found in their offices during searches.

The five persons were escorted to the National Anticorruption Center for additional questioning. If they are found guilty, they will serve five to ten years in jail or fined up to 400,000 lei and banned from holding public posts or performing particular activities for a period of seven to ten years.