Fictitious labor

It turned out that the mother of the city's head Saule ALAGUZOVA was employed as a translator in one of the schools in Ust-Kamenogorsk, but, as the auditors believe, she did not actually perform her duties and received an unreasonable salary for two years. The woman herself admitted during the court proceedings that she only had a secondary education and had not worked as a translator before being hired at the school.

As it turned out, she was far from the only fictitious employee. In 2023, a woman contacted the anti-corruption agency, stating that she had been formally employed as a translator in the Ust-Kamenogorsk education department. This is where it all started. The anti-corruption agency, as follows from the case materials, launched an investigation into Alaguzova and prompted the internal state audit department to conduct an unscheduled inspection in the city.

The public figure Adil PSHENOV added fuel to the fire by asking to check the validity of the calculation of salaries, including for the accountant-auditor and lawyer of the relevant state institution. According to the audit report, they were simply paid salaries for several months in 2021. The employees themselves tried hard to prove that the state audit department made a mistake, listened to the wrong witnesses, did not take into account the presence of official correspondence, and in general the audit was carried out under the supervision of the anti-corruption service, with an accusatory bias.

The “translator” herself said that she took a fictitious job at the suggestion of a certain city employee and that the money, they say, went specifically to her and her children - from autumn 2020 to May 2023.

But if the woman who was listed as a translator did not deny it, the accountant-auditor and the lawyer insisted that they worked remotely, and tried to link this to the coronavirus pandemic, when, they say, remote work was only welcomed.

Goro, the accountant-auditor and the lawyer reached the Supreme Court, and it seemed that they had a chance: the panel of the Supreme Court decided that the local courts had committed violations, so the judicial act was subject to review. In other words, the case was sent down from the Supreme Court again. However, even during the new review, the regional court still sided with the state audit department: their order remained in force.

Elena SUPRUNOVA, photo by Vladimir ZAIKIN, Ust-Kamenogorsk