On 15 November deputy head of Dashoguz office of Turkmenistan’s State Economic Crime Enforcement Agency Merdan Potiev was dismissed from his post.
This government agency has been recently conducting inspections in all organizations and institutions of Turkmenistan. At the same time, the agency staff took advantage of their authority to extort bribes.
During one of the inspections criminal charges were initiated and employees of a grain reception centre of Dashoguz velayat were arrested. Merdan Potiev was overseeing this case.
Sources at “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” have come up with two versions behind his dismissal.According to the first one, the head of the regional office of Turkmenistan’s State Economic Crime Enforcement Agency tried to coerce large amounts of money from detainees.
Another version runs that the detainees had influential patrons from law enforcement agencies who also received bribes from the executives of the grain reception centre.
Practically from the first day the new law enforcement agency was established the Turkmen law enforcement agencies have been fighting for the most profitable companies.
The public prosecutor’s office is currently carrying out the inspection of the grain reception centre. One of the two detainees has been placed under house arrest the second one is still being kept in a pre-trial detention facility of the NSM. There has been unconfirmed information that Merdan Potiev was also detained.
Let us recall that Turkmenistan’s State Economic Crime Enforcement Agency was set up on 1 June.
The agency foundation had been preceded by the large-scale cleansing in the government on 12 May, which continued after the new agency was set up.
The head of the agency Mammetkhan Chakyev last reported on the arrest of the officials accused of corruption at the government session on 5 October.