Criminal case initiated on huge swindle at construction of "dancing" bridge

The investigatory division of the regional FSB department has initiated a criminal case on the fact of an especially huge swindle (11 million roubles) at construction of a pontoon bridge across the Akhtuba River in the Volgograd Region.

The investigation has established that last August bosses and officials of the State Unitary Enterprise (SUE) "Regional Communal Construction" (Volgograd) and the Moscow-based organization "Promtekhnika-R" concluded a criminal arrangement. The SUE was the municipal customer, and the "Promtekhnika-R" was the contractor. Money was allocated from the budget for construction of a bridge between Zaplavnoe village and March 8 settlement in the Lenin District of the Region.

"The customer's and contractor's officials signed a fictitious act of finished works and a fictitious certificate on the costs to the total sum of more than 13 million roubles. Meanwhile, according to the audit act, the cost of the works actually fulfilled by the 'Promtekhnika-R' in building the passage was about 2 million roubles. This sort of actions make a crime stipulated by the article of the Russian Criminal Code 'Especially huge swindle'," the ITAR-TASS quotes the statement of the Regional Prosecutor's Office.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on May 20, during a strong rain, the new bridge in Volgograd suddenly started swinging. According to eyewitnesses, the oscillations were so strong that passenger cars jumped and turned around by 180 degrees in the air. The "dancing" bridge was closed, and experts examined it. It was planned to resume the traffic on June 23, but then it was decided to make additional tests, and the opening was postponed by 15-20 days.