A lower-level court on Friday found Tamur Tsakko, former head of the Estonian Road Administration, guilty of violating the regulations for carrying out public procurement tenders and handed him a suspended sentence.
Court hands suspended sentence to ex-head of Road Administration
28th June 2013, 16:46
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The court found that the charges brought against Tsakko were substantiated by the investigation and deemed a four-month suspended sentence with three years probation suitable punishment.
Tsakko was also ordered to pay 480 euros in compensation levies and 2,265 euros to cover the cost of expert analysis.
Tsakko's defense intends to contest the ruling.
At the April 30 hearing in the Harju regional court public prosecutor Steven-Hristo Evestus sought a conditional sentence of one-and-a-half years in jail with three years of probation for the ex-head of the road authority. He said that in punishing Tsakko the court should take into account that the accused has left public service, has no criminal record, and his personal character does not suggest the possibility of his committing further offenses.
Defense attorney Toomas Pikamae wanted his client to be acquitted.
Tsakko pleaded not guilty in the trial that started in mid-April.
The Public Prosecutor's Office at the end of September 2012 brought charges against the former head of the Road Administration of violation of the procedure of carrying out public procurement tenders and abuse of trust due to changing the terms of the tender concerning temporary traffic organization.
Tsakko was accused of permitting the contractor that built the Loo-Maardu road section to build a temporary road consisting of one lane in each direction with reinforced curbs instead of two plus two lanes as set out in the tender documents.
As giving permission to that was not in line with the law and because of that the builder was paid a sum 33,668 euros bigger than the actual cost of the work, Tsakko caused large material damage to the state.
Besides, Tsakko was charged with violation of public procurement requirements in another manner by which substantial material damage was caused.