The vice director of the state-run enterprise Moldova’s Post Office was detained in the morning of November 17 on suspicion of abuse of power. He was escorted for questioning and will remain in the custody of the National Anticorruption Center for the next 72 hours, IPN reports.

According to the Center, in May-June 2021, decision makers of Moldova’s Post Office, based on a prior agreement with two companies, signed a number of fictitious contracts for the provision of services in the IT sector even if the enterprise benefitted from the same services by a contract signed with another company working in the field. To avoid a public tender contest, these classed the contracts as small-value acquisitions, their total value being 229,000 lei. This way, the functionaries misused the public pecuniary and non-pecuniary resources, causing damage to the state budget.

The abuse of power or authority carry a penalty of at most seven years in jail or a maximum fine of 117,500 lei, in both of the cases with ban on holding public posts of performing particular activities for a period of five to ten years.