After a temporary decline, the number of corruption proceedings in North Rhine-Westphalia has skyrocketed again. The investigators even registered a tripling of the individual crimes.
Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The number of corruption proceedings has increased significantly in North Rhine-Westphalia. This emerges from the current picture of the situation on corruption, which was published on Tuesday. Accordingly, the number of procedures last year rose by more than 50 percent to 313 compared to the previous year (previous year: 208). The number of individual offenses even tripled to almost 2,400 cases in the same period.
The increase was mainly in the area of bribery and corruption, reported the State Criminal Police Office of North Rhine-Westphalia. It essentially results from extensive procedures in the construction industry and shopfitting.
For example, the managing director of a large, national construction company tied the award of orders to more than 100 subcontractors to their sponsorship in favor of a sports club he manages.
The head of a project company worked together with the head of a shopfitting company at the expense of individual shop operators in shopping centers.
At a university, an employee improved exam results for a fee of up to 800 euros and changed failed exams to passed exams.
Two employees at a job center distributed education vouchers for driving licenses, for example, and demanded that these should only be redeemed at two specific driving schools. The training was then not provided properly by these driving schools and was still billed.
The investigators estimated the damage caused by corruption at a total of 5.5 million euros. In many cases, however, such as the improved exam results, it is difficult or impossible to quantify.
