Bolat Majhagulov, the former head of the capital's culture department, was arrested in Astana, reported the national portal "Adyrna" with reference to the Kozachkov Offside Telegram channel.
He was reportedly suspected of theft during the construction of the Sun Fountain in 2016.
According to the Kozachkov offside Telegram channel, the opening of the facility is timed to the birthday of ex-president Nursultan Nazarbayev. However, since 2017, the fountain is in a state of disrepair.
During the investigation, it was found that more than 1 billion tenge was spent on the project. In addition, the Department of Culture built the fountain without a state procurement procedure. It did not have project-estimate documentation and did not pass state examination.
As it turned out later, the building was made of low-quality materials and soon fell into disrepair.
According to the Financial Monitoring Agency, which is responsible for the investigation, the then head of the Culture Department of Astana was directly involved in this case.
As part of the investigation, restrictions were placed on 3 commercial facilities, 2 parking lots and an apartment in a premium-class house of Bolat Majhagulov.
Among the suspects in this case are representatives of the contractor companies that built the fountain. Their property worth more than 500 million tenge was confiscated.
