Mikhail Kharin Primary School and Zubovka Secondary School in the Altai district of the East Kazakhstan region have purchased two petrol generators for a total of more than 3.2 million tenge. The purchases were made to ensure an uninterrupted power supply in the event of flooding. However, what piques our interest is not so much the reasons for the purchases, but the amount of money spent on them.
M. Kharin Primary School's petrol generator cost 1,818,580 tenge. The contract for its purchase was concluded back on 15 March 2024 via a single-source procurement. The agreement includes a line stating that the goods must meet the requirements of the technical specification. However, no such specification is included in the contract.
Zubovka Secondary School purchased a petrol generator with an electric starter for 1,435,500 tenge. The necessary characteristics are specified in the technical specification.
Finding the required unit in an online shop based on the given description was not difficult. Comparing prices, it turns out that the school, using funds from the local budget, purchased a petrol generator at a price three times higher than the market rate.
Both contracts are linked not only by the high prices of the generators and the location of the educational institutions, but also by the supplier. The supplier was Karside LLP. The founder and director of the partnership is Damir Shakirtov.
According to data from the government procurement website, in 2024 the company was primarily involved in snow clearance. A similar contract was recently concluded with the Akimat of the city of Altai for a sum of around 6 million tenge.
So what does this all mean? Two, frankly speaking, not cheap contracts are being entered into by state educational institutions through single-source procurement, when the same product could be bought for a much lower price.
Buyer and seller agree on a price: that is what a successful deal is built on. However, if the buyer is spending money from the state budget, then sooner or later they will have to account for the funds spent.