Anti-Corruption Committee makes public scale of corruption in Tabasaran District of Dagestan

The office of Alexander Khloponin, Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian President in Northern Caucasus, got interested in the activities of the Anti-Corruption Committee of the Tabasaran District of Dagestan. Mr Khloponin's deputy got in touch with the opposition in order to receive information about authorities' malversations.

Let us remind you that the "Caucasian Knot" has reported that at the rally on November 1 in the village of Khuchni (capital of the Tabasaran District) the NGO named "Anti-Corruption Committee of Tabasaran District" reported about the fixed cases of embezzling of tens of millions of roubles from the local budget.

Kazikhan Kurbanov, deputy head of the Committee, who spoke to the rally, said that "the total amount of embezzlement in the district made more than 321 million roubles; this is without 101 million roubles of subsidies paid by the population for gas."

Also, according to his story, there were machinations with vineyard plantings, obstacles to opening bank accounts by school principals, alienation by district authorities of a cannery from a local entrepreneur, and other facts of unlawful actions.

"Under the fierce resistance of law enforcers, we managed to initiate, based on our numerous applications, a few dozens of criminal cases (mostly against immediate relatives of the head of the Municipal Formation 'Tabasaran District' Nurmagomed Shikhmagomedov). We managed to pass 25 criminal cases through the courts; and verdict of guilty were passed on them. The courts ruled to return more than 38 million roubles of embezzled budget money to the state treasury," activists of the above Anti-Corruption Committee told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"We (the members of the Committee) refrained from rallies since last March, giving time to the authorities to remedy the situation. We gave a chance to the head of the district and the head of the republic. But when we saw our president surrounded by yesterday's people, we understood that the republic will continue living on donations from the federal centre," said Migdat Gadjiev, chairman of the Committee.

After the rally, the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" and a number of other journalists tried to find out the opinion of the district head Shikhmagomedov about the events. However, unidentified armed persons blocked the entrance to the first floor of the administration building, where his office is located. Without presenting themselves these securities did not allow journalists to see state officials. Also, under threat of physical violence filming was prohibited.

The initiator of the rally - the Anti-Corruption Committee of Tabasaran District - sent a letter on the situation in the municipal formation to Alexander Khloponin, Plenipotentiary Envoy of Russian President for the North-Caucasus Federal District (NCFD). According to the Committee, Mr Khloponin's deputy contacted them and asked for details about the situation in the area.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told at the Dagestani Prosecutor's Office that numerous checks of the activities of the Tabasaran district administration were conducted on the requests of activists from the Anti-Corruption Committee. The district prosecutor's office gave no comments referring to the absence of district public prosecutor, who is on holidays.