The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan has announced the results of competitions for the provision of services for aerial surveys of saiga antelope. The editorial board of the FBRK decided to find out the details of the procurement.
On 4 April, RSE "Okhotzooprom" of the Ministry of Ecology of the Republic of Kazakhstan concluded two single-source contracts for the lease of aircraft with crew for the counting and monitoring of the Ural, Ustyurt and Betpakdala saiga populations. The total cost of the services amounted to over 296 million tenge.
Incidentally, in 2023, the aerial survey of these populations was carried out by a subsidiary of the Committee for State Property and Privatisation of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan, JSC "KazAviaSpas". The contract amount in 2023 was approximately 270 million tenge.
This year, 100 flight hours have been allocated for monitoring the Ural and Ustyurt populations. Specifically, 60 hours in the West Kazakhstan Region and 40 in the Mangystau and Aktobe Regions. The aircraft rental cost was approximately 138 million tenge.
"Okhotzooprom" intends to spend 115 flight hours on counting the Betpakdala saiga population, covering the Karaganda, Aktobe, Kostanay, Akmola and Pavlodar regions, as well as the Ulytau Region. The aircraft rental cost was over 158 million tenge.
The helicopter rental will last until 31 December 2024, and the aerial survey itself will be conducted from 20 March to 5 May of this year.
Previously, "Okhotzooprom" had already concluded a similar contract for the counting and monitoring of argali. On that occasion, the invited supplier was a private Kazakh airline, Dala Air LLP.
In this case, the service provider for both contracts is also Dala Air LLP. The airline was registered in 2003 and has over 100 government contracts worth tens of billions of tenge. The company's founders are Svetlana Romanenko and the trading company Art-IT LLP, which is owned by Vyacheslav Romanenko.
We remind you that recently it became known about the mass death of saiga antelope in a water body in the Bokeiorda District of the West Kazakhstan Region. Staff of the RSE "Okhotzooprom" are handling the disposal of the carcasses of the dead animals.
One of the likely causes of the saiga deaths is said to be a drone used by "Okhotzooprom" to conduct filming, which greatly frightened the animals. It appears the frightened saiga drowned while attempting to cross the water body.