The National Anticorruption Center provided details about the searches carried out at the Chisinau City Hall within 35 criminal cases on February 22. According to the Center, 12 persons, including two employees of the Chisinau City Hall, were arrested for giving and taking bribe, IPN reports.

It was established that the acting head of the Chisinau City Hall’s Authorization and Discipline in Constructions Division, operating in collusion with the Division’s main specialist, regularly accepted and received, personally or by intermediaries, goods, benefits or advantages in different forms so as to hasten the taking of particular decisions to allow putting buildings into operation and to help obtain construction authorizations, urbanism certificates and other documents.

The documents were issued during several days or on the same day. The applicant received the package of documents in the office of the Division’s acting head, who received sums of 500 to 10,000 lei for his services.

The Division’s acting head and his inferior were placed under arrest for 72 hours. They face up to ten years in jail for passive corruption. The other ten persons are suspected of active corruption and are liable to up to seven years behind bars.