Talgat Ermegiyaev, former chairman of the board of the company responsible for arranging the event, has been accused of corruption.
According to a press release issued Monday by a district court in Astana, Ermegiyaev is suspected of large-scale embezzlement related to the joint-stock firm National Company Astana EXPO-2017.
A presidential decree last week said Ermegiyaev has been removed as chairman. He has not responded publicly to the allegations.
The upcoming event is one in the long tradition of world’s fairs, huge conferences that usually last for months. Countries bid against each other for the privilege of hosting.
The Paris-based Bureau for International Expositions (BIE) has managed the selection process for such events since the early 20th century.
Astana’s Expo 2017 represents Kazakhstan’s first successful bid to hold a world’s fair endorsed by the BIE. It is expected to run from June to September of 2017, with the theme of “future energy.”
Such fairs are expensive, involving dozens of countries and millions of visitors. In a statement published on the exhibition’s official website, Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev said that his government plans to spend about US$ 350 million on construction for the project.
The president appointed Ermegiyaev as a key organizer in 2013. According to Radio Free Europe’s Kazakh service, in 2014 the president accused Ermegiyaev of having “failed” in his work, while Ermegiyaev insisted that the Expo was still on track.
Ermegiyaev has now been replaced by Astana mayor and former secretary of state, Adilbek Dzhaksibekov.
Ermegiyaev is not the first official involved in the project to be accused of corruption.
Last week, one of the project’s advisors and former head of its construction department, Kazhimurat Usenov, was also placed under house arrest.
According to a court press release, Usenov is suspected of embezzling budget funds amounting to about US$ 1,150,000.
The Expo 2017 storm comes as Kazakhstan reaches the final stages of its bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. A vote in July will decide between Almaty (Kazakhstan’s largest city) and Beijing.
Allegations of corruption marred the 2011 Asian Winter Games in Kazakhstan when a top official was found guilty of embezzling US$ 3 million in public funds allocated for the event, Eurasianet reports.
