An entrepreneur from Turkestan region has been trying for 9 years to realise his land, purchased on legal grounds, but local authorities are obstructing his intentions, and the departments obliged to resolve this issue are simply doing nothing.
The editorial board of FBRK has previously highlighted the story of Ergali Meirbekov, who in 2011 purchased a plot in the village of Burgulyuk, Tolebi District, Turkestan Region. The entrepreneur initially coordinated the purchase with all relevant bodies, established the boundaries of his plot, and obtained the necessary permits.
A few years later, Ergali Meirbekov decided to expand his territory and bought the neighbouring plot. Imagine his surprise when he discovered that the recently purchased land had been fenced off and occupied by another person. It turned out that the land had previously been under the control of the district akimat, but the rural district akimat had allocated the territory to a third party on unknown grounds.
For 9 years, Meirbekov has sent numerous appeals to various authorities, but to this day, repeated court hearings and inspections have yielded no result. The entrepreneur has all the evidence proving the unlawful transfer of his land to outsiders.
The court established facts of illegal issuance of state acts for 43 land plots, which included Meirbekov's land. The sale and gift agreements were declared invalid. Yet the authorities still see no signs of criminal offences in the actions of officials.
Back in 2021, when we first reported this story, we noted that the court-appointed commission for plot measurements, using different measurement methods, arrived at strikingly identical data, which it included in its report.
This situation initially raised serious doubts and suggested a superficial approach to the matter, as even a layperson knows that any measurements have errors and discrepancies.
In response to all of Meirbekov's appeals and arguments, the local anti-corruption service and the prosecutor's office send out merely standard dismissive replies. As Ergali sees it, the reason for such inaction by state services lies in the so-called 'principle of mutually beneficial relations' between law enforcement agencies and local akimat representatives, which is widespread in the south.
Further confirmation of the indifference of local executive body representatives to Meirbekov's problem was the behaviour of the akim of Tolebi District, Tolegen Telgarayev. The entrepreneur repeatedly during personal meetings presented Telgarayev with confirmed facts of violations, providing all necessary documents, to which the akim took no action.
At one of the recent meetings, on 24 April 2024, Telgarayev even stated that Meirbekov's land plot problem was personal in nature and did not fall within the competence of the executive body, on which grounds the akim categorically refused to intervene in the entrepreneur's 'personal problems'.
Furthermore, following Meirbekov's appeal, the Tolebi District Akimat sent a letter regarding his case to the Department for Control of Turkestan Region — in other words, to the very body which, according to the entrepreneur, had previously repeatedly limited itself to dismissive replies. Thus, the circle of Meirbekov's appeals has once again closed.
It is worth noting that the editorial board of FBRK is well acquainted with the principle of so-called 'passing the buck' practised by certain state bodies, where officials shift the problem onto one another, excusing themselves by saying the matter is not within their competence. Often, the basis for such behaviour is a desire to conceal certain facts of violations on the part of those very bodies.
Therefore, we once again turn to the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Agency, Askhat Zhumagali, and the Prosecutor General, Berik Asylov, with a request to pay attention to the peculiarities of the work of the departments under their control in Turkestan region and, if necessary, to conduct a thorough investigation of the current situation with land plots in the region.