Those eight functionaries suspected of taking bribes to raise marks of students taking baccalaureate exams may get from 5 to 10 years in prison. The Economic Crimes and Corruption Combating Center (ECCCC) suspects that the key organizer of the scheme would be the director of the Evaluation and Examination Agency of the Education Ministry, Adrian Ghicov, Info-Prim Neo reports. Iurie Ciorba, an ECCCC officer, told a news conference on July 22 that other suspects were main specialist Aurica Marcu and coordinating specialist, Valeriu Sarai, both employees of the Education Ministry. The names of the other 5 suspects were not disclosed, but they are also employees of the Evaluation Agency and of District Education Divisions. According to Ciorba, the suspected functionaries would have taken from 100 to 350 euros from every student asking for a bigger mark, in function of locality and subject. After searching their offices and homes, the officers discovered money and names of students, whose marks were raised. “On some notes, even the amount of the money which was paid to raise the mark was written, as well as the mark given after the verification and the mark to be given after questioning the former mark. There are cases when samples of students' handwriting were sent, in order to easier find their works, since they are not signed,” Iurie Ciorba said. The ECCCC officer says there are cases when bribes were paid to raise the mark from 5 to 10. Moldova's evaluation system ranges from 1 to 10. In Aurica Marcu's house, 23,000 euros, $1,100 and an Education Ministry seal were discovered, the anti-corruption squad officer said. Iurie Ciorba says as many as 500 people will be heard on this case: teachers, parents and students from all over the country, as the suspects list could grow bigger. He says parents are heard as witnesses, who say they were asked for money for bigger marks. The ECCCC representative could not tell an approximate number of students whose marks were raised for money. Now 4 suspects are under house arrest, as 3 persons are probed in freedom. An advisor with the Education and Youth Minister, Agnesa Eftodi, has said the informational system excludes the involvement of the human factor. Teachers verify the works, as the computerized system converts the points to marks, she specified. The official has said it's hard for her to believe that the things had happened with the involvement of the suspected people. “Perhaps they intervened in issuing the documents,” she said. Eftodi does not rule out that some marks from the ministry's data base may differ from the ones in students' diplomas. The students involved may be ousted from universities. In order to avoid punishment, they are called to the ECCCC to denounce their involvement in this corruption case. In another context, the anti-corruption squad announces it found to be true a case when teachers from a school in Balti wrote the tests of 5 students who were not in the country on the exam day and for three students who were not in the exam hall.