State prosecutors have charged the head of Rostov’s Land Registry with hiring 200 bogus engineers.
The workers had no technical qualifications and were required to do no work – all on a state salary.
The so-called engineers earned $30,000 before the scam was uncovered. Some 10,000 rubles set aside for 300 new vacancies were also siphoned off by officials at the registry.
Prosecutors say around 5,000 genuine engineers are out of work in the Rostov region.
Pocketing state money has for years been a hobby beloved of officials.
On July 14, Moscow’s police said 50 million rubles from City Hall’s coffers have been misappropriated. The money was meant to be used to renovate a tunnel on the Garden Ring.
Both the city firm that ordered the works and the construction company are under suspicion. According to investigators, they have been forging building plans and progress reports, though hardly any work has been carried out.
The renovation started back in 2006 and was due to be completed in 2008.