KHUJAND, August 1, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- A number of officials in Asht district, Sughd province are suspected of having been involved in service forgery and fraud.

According to the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption’s office in Sughd province, N.B., a specialist with the Asht land management agency, and M.I, a secretary of the Shaydon jamoat, have came into collusion wit a number of other local officials and received 60,000 Russian rubles from local resident B.A. for allotment of land to him for housing.

Criminal proceedings have been instituted against the mentioned persons under the provisions of two articles of Tajikistan’s Penal Code: Article 247 (2) – fraud by prior collusion by a group of persons; and Article 323 – service forgery, the source said.

According to the statistical data from the anticorruption agency’s office in Sughd, 30 cases of fraud and eight cases of service forgery have been reported in northern Tajikistan over the first six months of this year.