Parnu mayor questioned on graft

Nov 28, 2008
TBT Staff in cooperation with BNS

PARNU – The seurity police have questioned the mayor of the Estonian city ofParnu in a widening scandal over possible violations of public procurement tender rules for road service works.

The charges leveled against Parnu Mayor Mart Viisitamm carry a possible sentence of one year in jail.

"Since there are grounds to believe that Mart Viisitamm may be linked to the breach of requirements, questioning him as a witness had to be ruled out. In order to ensure his right to defense, he was questioned as suspect," spokespeople for the West district prosecutor's office said.

Prosecutors are to take the final decision as regards the form of proceedings before the end of this year.

Deputy Mayor Simmo Saar is scheduled to appear before investigators on Dec. 2 and is likely to be declared suspect too.

The prosecutor's office said the security police conducted searches in the offices of the mayor and a deputy mayor of Parnu on Oct. 24 in connection with a criminal probe into the city's road maintenance tender.

Police suspect that officials of the city government tried to groundlessly create favorable terms and advantages for a company participating in the public procurement tender for the maintenance of Parnu roads and streets that was announced in May.

Even though the company did not win the tender, it is suspected that officials bended the public procurement rules in order to ensure the bid of the preferred company succeeded.

The winning bidder, Rapla Teed, is not involved in the probe.

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