Ussuriysk mayor suspected of neglect of duty put under travel ban

For the time of the investigation, mayor of the Ussuriysk city in Russia’s Primorsky Krai Sergei Ruditsa who is suspected of neglect of duty has been put under travel restrictions and under the pledge of good behaviour, spokeswoman for the Russian Investigative Committee’s (SK) investigation department for Primorsky Krai Avrora Rimskaya told ITAR-TASS.

As previously reported, a criminal case over the “neglect of duty” had been opened against Ruditsa. In this connection, the official was suspended by a court decision.

According to the investigators, the mayor in 2011 on behalf of a city district concluded a municipal contract worth more than 38 million roubles ($1 million) with the Energotekh company. Under the contract, the contractor undertook to produce equipment for the modernisation of a boiler station in Ussuriysk. The project was implemented under the targeted municipal programme of modernisation of the city’s housing and utilities facilities.

The investigators believe that the city mayor, without checking that the work had been done, signed the act on its completion. This caused an unjustified transfer to the company of 31 million roubles ($854763) from the municipal budget. Later on, the contracts were cancelled at the initiative of the administration, however, in view of the presence of the documents on the work completion, the court refused to recover the money from the contractor.

The prosecutor’s office seeks to arrest the suspect’s property - a dwelling house and two land plots - as forfeiture to compensate for the damage caused to the municipal budget.

The Primorsky Krai office of the United Russia party on Wednesday suspended Ruditsa’s membership in the party. “We don’t expel anybody from the party until the court passes a guilty verdict. If the court finds Ruditsa guilty, only then it would be possible to talk of the final decisions on this matter,” said Lyudmila Talabayeva, the secretary of the regional branch of the party.