Kazakhstan's parliament wins tenders of its own

A Daryo correspondent from Kazakhstan figured out how the Kazakh parliament wins tenders of its own. In examining, she relied on data from the public procurement website and from the official website of the Logistics Department of Kazakhstan.

According to the public procurement portal, the lion's share of all tenders is carried out from one source through the direct conclusion of the contract. This applies not only to purchases for which contracts have already been signed but also to those, which are planned in the future.

The law of the Republic of Kazakhstan on public procurement contains about 50 points, which can become grounds for holding tenders in this way. For example, the purchase of goods and services in the event of a threat to political stability, their acquisition to combat terrorism and extremism, or to organize referendums and elections.

This method does not position itself as competitive. The fact is that it does not provide for the placement of a procurement announcement - and, accordingly, the holding of a tender. The procedure is carried out through the direct conclusion of the contract between the customer and the supplier.

In the list of UMTO tenders, for which contracts have already been concluded for 2023, only one public procurement was carried out without a direct conclusion of the contract. In planned purchases, a purchase from a single source is often indicated.

It is worth emphasizing that very often UMTO acquires goods and services from its own subordinates. Thus, the contract for servicing electronic voting systems, conference systems, cable, and satellite television in the amount of KZT 967.6mn ($2,083,520) of the Logistics Department was signed with its own Engineering Center. The same organization was chosen for the purchase of equipment for the visual and audio recording of meetings of the chambers of parliament, as well as the installation of computer equipment in the amount of KZT 769.4mn ($1,656,739). In turn, the Directorate of Administrative Buildings of the Logistics Department will serve official apartments of officials for KZT 3.5bn ($7,537).

Svetlana Shesterneva, Almaty