The FBKC editorial team was approached with a request to verify an expensive procurement of office equipment rental services. We found several similar procurements made by municipal state institutions.
In January 2024, three specialised regional schools in the East Kazakhstan region entered into contracts with Alliance-Technoservice LLP for the supply of educational equipment rental services for general education classes in physics, robotics, biology, chemistry, and STEM. The procurements were made using funds from the local budget.
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For reference: STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) – an educational programme that combines lessons in natural sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
The first thing that stands out is, of course, the contract amount. Each school spent over 87 million tenge on equipment rental. The total amount was approximately 262 million tenge.
According to the contract concluded between MSE «Regional Specialised School-Lyceum for Children Gifted in Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science» and Alliance-Technoservice LLP, the rental of equipment for the physics classroom alone cost the school 7.4 million tenge.
Meanwhile, online we found an offer for a complete physics classroom package, which includes furniture, electronic publications, and all necessary equipment for 10 million tenge.
The concluded contracts also specify the term of the service – from the moment of signing until 31 December 2025. This means the specialised regional schools rented educational equipment using budget funds amounting to approximately 262 million tenge for a period of just one year, considering that fully purchasing this equipment would be possible for a similar cost.
The supplier in this story is also not entirely straightforward. Alliance-Technoservice LLP, according to data from the portal Kompra.kz, has been registered since 2014. The company has a medium degree of tax risk and is owned by Kanat Tyulebayev.
The partnership regularly participates in state procurement and has over 180 government contracts. The company's owner, Mr Tyulebayev, also appears in «9BIT» LLP, «Mak Consulting» LLP, «Tulas» LLP, and «MK_Solution» LLP.
Furthermore, according to information from open sources, the company «Alliance-Technoservice» is controlled by businessman Tulebay Tulepov, who once set records for supplying equipment to state institutions, including schools.
For example, a couple of years ago, the company «Alliance-Technoservice» won a tender at the Zhylyoi Technological College of Oil and Gas named after Safi Utebayev for 115 million tenge. True, some time later it emerged that the company had initially placed second in the competition, and employees of the Department of Internal State Audit of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan helped it jump to first place. Naturally, for a «modest» fee.
This is far from an isolated case of fraud by Mr Tulepov. Most recently, in 2022, he was sentenced to seven years for corruption, with a lifelong ban from holding positions in public service.
It is also interesting that the company «Alliance-Technoservice» engages in wholesale supplies. It is logical to conclude that in this case the partnership is acting as a middleman.
The question then arises: who could benefit from such a deal? After all, there are many manufacturing companies on the market capable of supplying the same equipment for a much lower amount.