Ministry of Transport informed journalists that JSC "NC "KazAvtoZhol" will review the contract for the installation and maintenance of the toll collection system on republican highways with LLP "Computer Vision Technologies". The department stated its intention to reduce the amount of payments for operating costs.
As reported by the media, on 19 June of this year, a corresponding agreement for the assessment of capital costs of LLP "Computer Vision Technologies" was concluded between JSC "NC "KazAvtoZhol" and LLP "Business Partner Consult". Based on the results of the assessment, the transfer of assets will be carried out and the corresponding amount of payments will be established.
Journalists also note that, according to information from JSC "NC "KazAvtoZhol", the amount of fees collected for driving on toll sections of republican highways for 2021 amounted to 9 billion tenge, and for 2022 - 22.3 billion tenge. Previously, during the period of 2021-2022, LLP "Computer Vision Technologies" was paid 786.6 million tenge.
Several years ago, the editorial board of the FBRK published material about who would profit from Kazakhstan's toll roads. To recall, based on the results of a tender, on 24 December 2019, a contract was concluded between the national company and a consortium consisting of LLP "Computer Vision Technologies", LLP "Temirzhol Zhondeu", and "Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co., Ltd" for a term of 11 years for the installation and maintenance of the toll collection system on republican highways.
LLP "Computer Vision Technologies", as the leader of the Consortium, is involved in implementing the Project. LLP "Temirzhol Zhondeu" is a Kazakh construction company with 17 years of experience in the field of building roads and railways. The company is also part of the group of companies "Kamkor Management".
The Thai company "FETCI", chosen as a consultant, is one of the world's most advanced IT enterprises in developing toll road networks. And this time, there was no participation whatsoever from any French firm "GEA", not even at the application stage for participation in the two tenders.
However, there were Russians in the form of the company "Platon", which has experience in the technical equipping and maintenance of toll roads in Russia. However, they were weeded out at the preparatory stage of the first tender.
Moreover, each active member in the consortium has been assigned their role. The first fiddle is LLP "CVT" and "Sergek", or more precisely LLP "Korkem Telecom". And the Thais, apparently, were shoved into the consortium to make use of their experience.
According to Agreement I-SVP-01/19 dated 24 December 2019, concluded between NC "KazAvtoZhol" and the consortium, the total contract amount excluding VAT was 138.7 billion tenge, including the cost of capital works amounting to 25.6 billion tenge and the cost of servicing services amounting to 113.1 billion tenge, which Timur Kulibayev's company was supposed to receive over nearly 10 years.
In April 2020, LLP "Computer Vision Technologies" holds a tender for the procurement of works for manufacturing metal structures of control gantries, construction and installation works for installing control gantries, manufacturing and installing modular-type centres for customer service.
The cost of the work, according to qualification requirements and technical specifications, must not exceed 3,364,324,663.39 (three billion three hundred sixty-four million three hundred twenty-four thousand six hundred sixty-three tenge, thirty-nine tiyn), excluding VAT.
HOW MUCH DOES TOLL ROAD EQUIPMENT COST?
According to the decision of the tender commission dated 25 April 2020, JSC "NGSK KazStroyService" was selected as the subcontractor for the aforementioned works, who offered to perform the specified works for 3,338,145,422 tenge, excluding VAT. Although, a tender with a single participant can hardly be called a tender.
Let's try to break this amount down into its components.
The cost of a standard Kazakh-manufactured modular block measuring 12 m x 2.4 m x 2.7 m ranges from 3.74 million tenge to 5.52 million tenge.
Let's take the arithmetic mean price (since that's how average salaries are calculated in our country) — 4.63 million tenge.
According to the qualification requirements, at the first stage (equipping roads for toll collection is divided into two stages) 27 such modules are needed. That amounts to 125.13 million tenge. This leaves a remainder of 3.21 billion tenge.
In addition to the 27 modules, the subcontractor must also manufacture and install 99 gantries. Thus, it works out to a cost of approximately 32,454,701 tenge per gantry.
We know that 6 "Sergek" type cameras will be installed on the gantries. One for each lane plus the hard shoulder. Earlier in the media, one of the developers of "Sergek", Aset Akhmetov, stated that the approximate cost of one such camera is 50 thousand tenge.
That means no more than 300 thousand for the cameras, plus a communication module, road sign, wiring, stickers (whatever else you can think of) – all of this won't add up to 1 million tenge in total cost, yet we, Kazakhstani citizens, are buying ourselves some kind of metal structure, including installation services, for over 30 million tenge. A very profitable business.
WHO WILL ACTUALLY PROFIT FROM KAZAKHSTAN'S TOLL ROADS?
But the trick isn't even in the cost of the gantries, modular blocks for payment centres, or equipment. Under the terms of the agreement between the state and the consortium, the state undertakes to reimburse the investment over 11 years using funds received from toll collection.
At the same time, the investor puts only 25.66 billion tenge of its own funds into the project, for the development of intelligent systems in the road transport industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Of which over 21 billion tenge are credit funds.
So, what are we left with?
The LLP invests less than 2 billion tenge of its own money, sells gantries at an incredible price, and in return receives 138 billion over 11 years for maintaining the system of collecting money from ordinary citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
