DUSHANBE, June 3, 2011, Asia-Plus — The Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption has completed inspection of the financial activity of Tajikistan’s largest construction company, Movarounnahr.
The anticorruption agency director Fattoh Saidov told Asia-Plus on Friday that the inspection has been conducted following a ruling handed down by the Prosecutor-General’s Office.
We will recall that the Movarounnahr director general Jurabek Okhonov was detained by the Dushanbe law enforcement authorities on November 9, 2010 and dozens of investors of this company gathered near the Movarounnahr office in Dushanbe on November 10, 2010, expressing concern about the fate of the company top manager and their funds invested in construction of apartment buildings. They demanded to release Okhonov in order that he could give their money back.
Movarounnahr is Tajikistan’s largest construction company. It has been engaged in mortgage housing since 2005. However, not all investors have received their apartments.
On October 25, 2010, more than 70 investors lodged a joint application against the company to the Dushanbe prosecutor’s office. The Dushanbe mayor’s office also received applications from persons, who invested in construction of apartment buildings, and sent them for consideration to the Dushanbe prosecutor’s office.
Okhonov’s lawyer, Shuhrat Qudratov, who has familiarized himself with the preliminary findings of the inspection, told Asia-Plus that 135 million somoni (equivalent to US$30 million), with 108 million somoni of them being funds of investors, bank loans and tender funds allocated for construction of social facilities in the south of Tajikistan, had been spent for all construction projects. “The remaining 27 million somoni are personal means of Jurabek Okhonov,” the defense lawyer said.
“Investments of private individuals have amounted to 62 million somoni,” said Qudratov, “The total number of investors is 700 people; 250 of them have already received their apartments or authorizations to occupy apartments, while the remaining 450 investors are waiting for their apartments in the half-finished residential building.”
In the meantime, Umed Poulodov, the head of the investigative team for the Movarounnahr case within the Prosecutor-General’ Office, noted that they have not yet received the certificate of audit.
According to the Prosecutor-General’s Office, criminal proceedings have been instituted against Jurabek Okhonov under Article 247 (4) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code – fraud. An investigation is under way.
