The Agency for State Financial Control and Anti-Corruption of Tajikistan has completed its review and submitted to the court a criminal case against several employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Mastchokh district on suspicion of receiving bribes in the amount of 177 thousand somoni from residents of the district.
According to the Agency, the head of the investigation department, Nurmatova J.R., and the investigator of this department of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Mastchokh district, Badavlatzoda R.H. in March of this year, they received a bribe of 40 thousand somoni from an unnamed citizen, promising not to initiate criminal proceedings against him.
In addition, according to the source, Nurmatov "in the same way, in three other cases, through other employees of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Matchinsky district," received a total of another 137 thousand somoni from citizens for permission in their favor to review case materials that were under investigation by the department's investigators.
A criminal case was opened against Nurmatov J.R. and other persons (their exact number has not been named) under part 1 of Article 314 ("Abuse of official authority") and part 3 of Article 319 ("Receiving a bribe").
It is worth noting that the Agency for State Financial Control and Anti-Corruption annually publishes a list of institutions whose employees are the most corrupt. The list varies from year to year, but it always includes educational, scientific, healthcare institutions, and local governments.
Experts call corruption one of the main problems of Tajikistan, and dozens of civil servants are held accountable every year for accepting bribes and embezzlement of state funds.
In the new Transparency International Corruption Perception Index in 2024, Tajikistan ranked 164th out of 180 countries, dropping by 19 points.
