Dushanbe Mayor Rustam Emomali has reportedly filed a request with the anticorruption agency for the review of financial activities of the Dushanbe mayor’s office.
Rustam Emomali has filed an appropriate request with the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption for the purpose of ensuring transparency of financial activities of the mayor’s office and targeted use of budgetary funds, according to the press center of the Dushanbe office.
Recall, President Emomali Rahmon last year ordered the anticorruption agency to investigate the use of budgetary funds of the country and Dushanbe allocated for construction of residential buildings.
Speaking at a meeting with senior representatives of the Dushanbe administration on February 15, 2017, Rahmon ordered the anticorruption agency to complete the investigation until July 1, 2017.
The president told the meeting that some 100 million U.S. dollars had been misspent in the construction of the Dushanbe Plaza complex and Istiqlol medical center.
Concerning funds earmarked for the completion of state-run urban facilities, President Rahmon said that the Dushanbe mayor’s office investigations had revealed that out of a total of 677 million somoni (equivalent to 85 million U.S. dollars) spent on completing 18 separate facilities, around 55 million somoni had been “used improperly.” An investigation into what happened to this cash should be completed by the anticorruption agency by July, he said.
Another area of investigation has concerned the government’s “Affordable Housing” project. This initiative, supported by the Dushanbe mayor’s office, was launched in 2013 and was supposed to lead to the hard-up families moving into new homes by September 2015. But building work was serially delayed, causing alarm among hopeful homebuyers that had put down deposits.
The head of state also ordered the Dushanbe administration to give the process of implementation of construction works and targeted use of budgetary funds under its strict control.
The deputy chief of the anticorruption agency, Iliyos Idriszoda, said on January 27, 2017 that the preliminary investigation had been launched into possible embezzlement of state funds by staff members during Ubaidulloyev's long tenure as mayor of the capital.
Idriszoda said that the investigation was launched after the agency received complaints from several Dushanbe residents who suspected that state funds allocated for the construction of apartment blocks were misused.
He said that the new mayor, Rustam Emomali, had also asked the agency to look into the situation.
The deputy chief of the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption, Abdukarim Zarifzoda, told reporters in Dushanbe on July 28, 2017 that the Agency has fulfilled president’s order on investigating use of budgetary funds allocated for construction of facilities in Dushanbe in time.
According to him, the anticorruption agency has inspected 69 facilities for embezzlement of state funds. “Findings by the anticorruption agency show that overstated expenses have cost the country at 7.8 million somoni,” said Zarifzoda. “Inspections are under way.”
President Emomali Rahmon appointed his son Rustam Emomali as mayor of Dushanbe on January 12, 2017. Rustam Emomali replaced Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloyev, who was mayor for 19 years.
Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloyev has given up his seat in Dushanbe’s legislature (Majlis). However, he still remains chairman of the parliament's upper chamber (Majlisi Milli) and is considered Tajikistan's No. 2 leader after the president.
