The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan has published the results of a tender for the provision of services for aerial surveys of rare and endangered species of ungulates across the entire territory of the country. The editorial team of the FBRK decided to find out more about the details of the procurement.
On 7 March, the Republican State Enterprise «Okhotzooprom» of the Ministry of Ecology of the Republic of Kazakhstan concluded a single-source contract for the provision of services for the rental of aircraft with crew for the survey and monitoring of argali.
According to the technical specification, the cruising speed of the aircraft must be no less than 100 km/h, the flight altitude - no more than 150 metres from the ground, with the ability to operate flights in mountainous terrain up to 3,000 metres above sea level.
In total, the Ministry of Ecology plans to carry out 225 flight hours from March to May 2024:
- Turkestan Region – 40 flight hours;
- Zhambyl Region – 40 flight hours;
- Karaganda Region – 50 flight hours;
- Abai Region – 35 flight hours;
- Pavlodar Region – 15 flight hours;
- East Kazakhstan Region – 15 flight hours;
- Zhetysu Region – 30 flight hours.
The procurement cost «Okhotzooprom» 310 million tenge. Initially, in January 2024, RSE «Okhotzooprom» published an open tender, which was declared invalid due to a lack of bids. A second tender in February of this year also failed – only one potential supplier submitted a bid, namely «Dala Air» LLP.
Only on the third occasion, after two failed tenders, did «Okhotzooprom» invite the private Kazakh airline «Dala Air» LLP to act as the supplier. The founders of the supplier company are Svetlana Romanenko and the trading company «Art-IT» LLP, owned by Vyacheslav Romanenko.
The airline was registered in 2003 and has more than 100 government contracts worth tens of billions of tenge. These concern services such as certification of production facilities, provision of helicopters and aircraft for rent, or flight inspection of equipment.
The customers for the services under the contracts are airports in various regions and state enterprises such as «Kazaeronavigatsia», «Okhotzooprom» and «Kazakh Base for Aerial Forest Protection and Forestry Service».
Since 2015, «Dala Air» has paid approximately 6 billion tenge in taxes. The company has been involved in five court cases, one of which was a lawsuit in 2022 from «Zhasyl damu» JSC seeking recovery of debt. However, later, for unknown reasons, the corporation withdrew its claim.
The company «Art-IT», also owned by Vyacheslav Romanenko, successfully enters into expensive government contracts for the supply of computer equipment. The customers include akimats, hospitals, and scientific and educational institutions. Since 2015, «Art-IT» has paid 2.5 billion tenge in taxes.
It is remembered that it started exactly the same way with saigas: first surveys and monitoring, and then it came to dubious biological justifications. Today, the convenient term «removal for scientific purposes» is used for the extermination of saigas. There are plans to introduce amateur sport hunting. Indeed, the saiga horns need to be obtained somehow for sale abroad.
Are argali next on Mr Nysanbayev's bloody list? Today it is harmless monitoring, and tomorrow they will slip in a scientific justification for poaching.