Another chapter in the saga of video surveillance systems is unfolding in Almaty, with billions of tenge at stake and tender terms seemingly written for a specific contractor. This time, it involves nearly 4.5 billion tenge that the city could spend on leasing 3,050 cameras over six years, with the equipment potentially remaining the supplier's property.
The story began in 2022, when the State Institution 'Department of Digitalisation of Almaty City' announced a tender for 'video monitoring services for 3,050 cameras'. The winner was Freedom Telecom LLP with a bid of 2.4 billion tenge for a three-year period. The peculiarity of the deal was that the cameras remained on the supplier's balance sheet — in effect, the city was leasing someone else's equipment for a substantial sum.
In December 2024, the term of the initial contract expired. And on 18 August 2025, the department announced a new tender for leasing the same 3,050 cameras for another three years at a cost of 2.07 billion tenge.
According to the technical specification of the new tender, the contractor must provide the service within 10 calendar days of the contract being registered. But who could manage to supply such a volume of services in such a short time? Probably whoever already has a ready-made network of 3,050 cameras in Almaty. For instance, Freedom Telecom happens to have exactly the number of cameras required by the tender.
Concurrently with the tender procedures in 2024, there were staffing changes at the department. Meiram Dyusyukov was appointed to the position of deputy head, whose previous career is closely linked to video surveillance systems.
From 2017 to 2021, Dyusyukov worked as Deputy Chairman of the Board of Astana Innovations JSC, where, according to an FBK source, he actively promoted the 'Sergek' intelligent public and road safety system of Korkem Telecom LLP, which, in turn, is affiliated with Freedom Telecom.
After that, from 2021 to 2022, he worked at IBEACON KAZAKHSTAN LLP, where he allegedly worked on promoting the 'Sergek' project in Ukraine and Belarus.
According to the FBK source, Dyusyukov's appointment may be linked to strengthening the positions of Sergek group companies in the field of video monitoring. However, there is no direct evidence of this connection yet.
Be that as it may, this entire situation in Almaty is unfolding against the backdrop of serious problems with video surveillance systems across Kazakhstan, which our editorial team has covered over the past few years.
In February 2025, the Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Technical Regulation and Metrology, Bauyrzhan Kassymov, stated that there were serious violations in the procedure for checking hardware and software complexes. It then emerged that territorial departments had not conducted mandatory checks of video recording cameras in 2024, and many laboratories had committed procedural violations.
And in March 2025, the specialized inter-district economic court of Kostanay region ruled to terminate the contract with Korkem Telecom after an audit revealed equipment substitution, a lack of technical documentation, and unjustified expenses amounting to 1.76 billion tenge. The 'Sergek 2.1' system, for which around 700 million tenge per year was allocated, turned out to be not what was expected. At the same time, the court did not deem the company an unscrupulous partner due to the formal statute of limitations.
Meanwhile, the Akimat of Astana announced a change of operator for the city's video surveillance system, planning to conclude a new agreement with the Emirati company Presignt for 53 billion tenge.
Against the backdrop of all these controversial events, a logical question arises: How does a company linked to the Sergek group, following a series of court cases, terminated contracts, and identified violations, once again get a chance at a major government contract?
Perhaps the reason is that the video surveillance system market in Kazakhstan is extremely monopolised, and there are simply no alternatives. Or maybe the public procurement system is structured so that formal compliance with all procedures effectively precludes competition.
Readers may recall that last June, the FBK editorial team reported in detail on the intelligent road control system project (ISKAD), which was being jointly developed by Freedom Telecom and Sergek Group.
We also analysed the 'Sergek' intelligent public and road safety system project, which throughout its operational period was the subject of numerous disputes regarding the safety and effectiveness of the system.