The Petropavlovsk court fined an appraiser who instigated a local resident affected by the flood to give a bribe.
According to the Telegram channel "Witness.kz", in spring the Petropavlovsk city administration concluded contracts with private specialists and independent appraisal companies. The experts were meant to determine the value of property destroyed or damaged by the flood.
Among them was Individual Entrepreneur "Faskhutdinov M.R.", who assigned part of the work to an external specialist, Ruslan Priznyakov. In May, Priznyakov inspected one of the houses partially destroyed by the flood and suggested to its owner that they hand over 100,000 tenge to city administration employees who were part of the commission for reviewing applications from citizens who had lost their homes.
"Priznyakov intentionally misled [the homeowner], claiming that recognising the house as unsafe was only possible by giving a bribe to officials of the Petropavlovsk city administration who serve on the commission for reviewing citizens' applications. In turn, B., who was interested in having his house declared unsafe and receiving financial compensation, agreed to this proposal", the statement reads.
Later, the expert received the money from the man, but did not hand it over to the commission; instead, he kept it for himself. By a court decision, the 100,000 tenge was confiscated from him and he was ordered to pay a fine.
Let us recall that in the Karasu District of the Kostanay Region, where the state of emergency has still not been lifted, work continues to eliminate the consequences of the flood. Water from several lakes flooded the district's road infrastructure, and power lines were also submerged.
Meanwhile, the Agency for Financial Monitoring (AFM) has completed its investigation into the criminal case against the head of the Department of Natural Resources of the Ulytau Region and individuals who improperly carried out work under the "Zhezdy River Remediation" project.
The accused violated building standards and deviated from the project documentation, which reduced the riverbed's stated design capacity. The officials' actions led to the flooding of 10 private houses during the spring flood.