Indictment filed against 12 tender officials

The Special Prosecution Office has filed an indictment against 12 individuals and three legal entities at the Ministry of Education on suspicion of abuse of office, abuse and fraud with tenders and falsification of documents. According to a media release on Wednesday, they are accused of having cheated with tenders to intentionally benefit someone. The damage is considered to be over seven million euros.

The accused as natural persons are: ND, AM, AB, Xh.B., MZ, FD, FZ, A.Sh., ML, DL, AB, IE, and the defendants as legal entities are "A&F P. Sh.pk, "S. Sh.pk", "Sh.G Sh.pk".

According to the indictment, "AM, ND, from 02.04.2019 to 11.03.2021, in their capacity as official persons at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, have drafted selection criteria in the tender procedures "Purchase of packages of necessary equipment for subject areas and maintenance", which favored the winning operator and unfairly excluded other operators". In this case, the damage caused to the budget, according to the Prosecution, is more than 1.8 million euros.

Meanwhile, the defendants AB, Xh.B., MZ, ND and AM, from 26.10.2020 to 27.11.2023, "in their capacity as official persons at MEST, in violation of the Law on Public Procurement, have contracted products at prices up to 1900% higher than market prices, causing damage to the budget of 2,148,282.35 euros."

The indictment states that, contrary to the contract, these officials allowed the delivery of products originating in China and Turkey instead of products originating in the European Union, as stipulated in the contract. In this case, the damage is over 3.6 million euros.