The "Bolashak" International Programmes Centre has commented on the statement made by the individuals who acted as guarantors for a programme participant, who, they claim, removed apartments from collateral without having the legal right to do so.
Earlier, they stated that they had acted as guarantors for their former colleague Valeria Gavrilenko, who successfully completed her studies under the Bolashak programme, and then in 2019, "conspired with Centre employees to illegally remove her two apartments from the Centre's collateral and left to live in the United Kingdom".
According to the Centre's press service, Gavrilenko had previously provided two properties as collateral. However, their value did not cover the full cost of tuition; therefore, two "guarantors" – Daribayeva and Vorobyova – officially stood surety for the scholarship recipient, with whom the Centre concluded guarantee agreements in 2016.
"According to clauses 2.1 and 2.2 of the guarantee agreement, M.A. Daribayeva and N.A. Vorobyova accepted full joint and several liability for the fulfilment of all obligations under the training organisation agreement, and clause 2.4 of the agreement stipulates that in the event of non-fulfilment and/or improper fulfilment of obligations to the Centre by the scholarship recipient, should the scholarship recipient fail to satisfy a demand to fulfil the obligation, the Centre has the right to make this demand to the guarantor for the unfulfilled part," the statement reads.
It is reported that on 13 May 2019, the former President of the Centre, Zh. Meldeshov, Vice-President M. Alpysbay, and Head of the Legal Department A. Sharambayev, issued a notice of removal of collateral from the real estate property due to the full fulfilment of the scholarship recipient's obligations. That is, one year after the start of her employment.
After these facts came to light, the Centre repeatedly submitted applications to the relevant authorities concerning the former officials of the Centre regarding instances of official forgery.
It has become known that in April 2024, the Centre sent letters to the National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in order to establish the actual whereabouts of V. Gavrilenko.
"Currently, the Centre is carrying out systematic work on the 'return of scholarship recipients' of the 'Bolashak' programme who are residing in other countries and failing to fulfil their contractual obligations to the state," the statement reads.
It is noted that out of 13,000 graduates of the "Bolashak" programme, less than 1% failed to complete their studies or fulfil their employment obligations to the state, and had their scholarships revoked.
"The Centre returns approximately 200 million tenge to the state budget monthly. In 2023, 1.9 billion tenge was returned to the budget; as of 27 May 2024, this amounted to 716 million tenge, and 43 individuals have fully repaid their debt to the state," the Centre's press service reported.
It will be recalled that earlier, an appeal to the President appeared online from Natalya Vorobyova and Makpal Daribayeva – the individuals who acted as guarantors for former participants of the "Bolashak" programme. It became known that because Gavrilenko is not in the country, the Centre was unable to recover the debt from her. However, after 3 years, Bolashak presented her debt of nearly 30 million tenge to the guarantors.