Slovak police have arrested and accused another nine entrepreneurs of machination and bribery involving public procurement tenders at the Ministry of Defence, who will join Mr. Miroslav D. and two others who have already been charged in the case.
Miroslav D was accused of machination back in August 2010 by the Anti-Corruption Office for making sure the nine business people would come out top in public procurement tenders, and so he could face up to 12 years behind bars. The two other men used to work as officials at the Ministry of Defence, and so are being charged with abuse of position and machination.
The men manipulated public tenders between 2009 and 2010, tailor-making them to pre-agreed companies, which then also put in overpriced bids as they were guaranteed to win the tenders. Over the space of a year the scheme involved tenders worth a minimum of EUR 1,730,000.
So far the total amount of bribes that the police believe changed hands comes to over EUR 67,000, with individual payments being made to Miroslav D by the entrepreneurs. The investigation continues.