In the inter-district criminal court of Shymkent, a sentence was handed down to the former director of secondary school No. 133, Asel Baidossova, and the chief accountant of the same institution, Ulan Dadabekov. They were found guilty of embezzling budget funds and accepting bribes.
According to Ratel.kz, in October last year, Dadabekov was already sentenced to two years in prison for embezzling 2.6 million tenge at the same school. The investigation has now uncovered thefts amounting to more than 70 million tenge.
As the investigation established, from 2020 to 2022, the accused inflated staff salaries at the school, after which they demanded the return of the 'surplus' in cash or via transfers to accounts specified by the accountant.
It also emerged that in August 2022, Baidossova demanded a bribe of 150,000 tenge from a computer science teacher who wanted to return early from maternity leave due to financial difficulties. This fact was confirmed in court by the teacher who was victimised and the deputy director through whom the bribe was passed.
The school director rejected all accusations, claiming she was the victim of her own accountant's schemes. According to her, she trusted Dadabekov but was unhappy with his work and had even engaged in 'serious correspondence with him via the WhatsApp messenger'. Nevertheless, she did not dismiss him, citing a shortage of qualified staff.
Baidossova claims she allegedly only learned about the financial irregularities after a visit from journalists in August 2022, when teachers began to complain.
During the investigation, of the total damage amounting to more than 70 million tenge, only about 16 million tenge was recovered.
In the end, the court found Asel Baidossova and Ulan Dadabekov guilty and sentenced them to 8 years in prison with a lifelong ban from holding positions in state bodies.
It was previously reported that in the Abai region, the staff of the specialised boarding school-gymnasium named after Abai are complaining about violations by the institution's director, Rollan Tleukhanov.
The teachers claimed that the head not only makes them perform tasks outside their job duties but has also organised a system of cash collections.