Georgia`s former Education Minister responds to corruption allegations28.10.12 17:49Georgia`s former Education Minister Dimitri Shashkin has responded to the allegations about his involvement in a corruptional deal. He said the video televised by a Georgian channel is "slander and lie". The statement released on Shashkin`s Facebook page sys: "In 2011, a new national curriculum was developed for the grades 1-6, therefore, according to the law, there had to be a new approval process of the textbooks. This means that it was not me who abolished licenses for the textbooks, as it was televised, it was the law, based on which the publishers had to go through the new textbook approval process. "In 2011, the person showed on TV, contacted me through a mediator and requested a meeting. A meeting itself was never a problem because I often met with different publishers – only in public. But this particular person did not want to make this meeting public and requested a one-on-one meeting with me based on which it became obvious that he wanted to make an unlawful proposal. I informed Ministry of Internal Affairs and General Prosecutor’s office about this intention. As a result, law enforcement agencies decided to plan an operation and reveal this illegal act by catching the criminals red-handed. For this reason, certain individuals were assigned to the Ministry of Education and Science from the relevant units who planned and executed this operation. What the public saw on TV, were the scenes from this special operation. Everything was done to catch the criminals in the process of offering money and this was recorded and shown. "The moment of offering a bribe was recorded and televised numerous times earlier. The president also touched on this topic while addressing best students in his palace. He noted that Shashkini was not taking bribes and warned others not to try to bribe me any more. All facts can be found in TV archives and it is very simple to check them. I confirm that I was offered a bribe in the amount of USD 50,000 and a share in the business of this individual." |
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