A scandal surrounding the Sergek system continues to unfold in the Kostanay region. On 28 March 2025, the Specialised Inter-District Economic Court (SIDEC) of the Kostanay region partially upheld a claim by the Department of Informatisation, Public Service Delivery and Archives regarding the termination of the contract with Korkem Telecom LLP.
As reported by some media outlets, the story began in 2022 when a private investor approached the regional akimat with a proposal to install, at its own expense, 60 hardware and software complexes (HSCs) on roads and 1,000 general CCTV cameras.
In 2023, a tripartite public-private partnership (PPP) agreement was concluded between the regional informatisation department, the police department, and Korkem Telecom LLP.
The total value of the contract was a hefty 3.5 billion tenge and was spread over five years, with annual payments increasing. According to the terms, payment was to be made according to the following schedule: in 2024 — 661,238,880 tenge, in 2025 — 685,021,080 tenge, in 2026 — 709,754,880 tenge, in 2027 — 735,476,520 tenge, in 2028 — 762,222,297 tenge.
Recall that as early as January last year, numerous violations came to light regarding the installation of cameras in the Kostanay region. It turned out that Korkem Telecom LLP did not meet the legal and technical requirements, did not hold exclusive rights to the software, and lacked the necessary certificates.
Furthermore, serious financial violations were discovered in the project, including unjustified cost compensation amounting to 1.76 billion tenge.
The inspection, which began in the summer of 2024, continued until November. The results were disappointing: based on the audit findings, a pre-trial claim was sent to the private partner, and the informatisation department subsequently filed a lawsuit in court.
The court identified significant breaches of contract terms, including lack of rights to the software, substitution of equipment without approval, insufficient technical documentation, inclusion of unjustified costs, and failure to meet deadlines for commissioning.
"During the project implementation, the private partner committed violations of material terms of the contract, including discrepancies identified between the 'Sergek 2.1' HSC, which had been certified for type approval of measurements, and the HSC installed on the territory of the city of Kostanay. This served as the basis for upholding the claim and terminating the contract," explained the press service of the Kostanay Regional Court.
However, the second part of the claim — to declare Korkem Telecom LLP an unscrupulous private partner — was dismissed due to the expiry of the statutory time limit.
Nevertheless, the court ordered Korkem Telecom LLP to pay all court costs and state duties to the state revenue, proportionate to the part of the claim that was upheld.
Therefore, the termination of the contract did not release the company from liability for the legal costs. At the same time, the issue of recovering amounts already paid or compensation for losses was not considered in this ruling, but it remains possible that this could become the subject of a separate lawsuit, should the akimat decide to file one.
Notably, a total of seven third parties were involved in the case, including the Kostanay Regional Police Department, the Committee of Internal State Audit, the Committee for Technical Regulation and Metrology, Open Technologies Group LLP, Kazakhstan PPP Centre JSC, Atameken NCE, and State Technical Service JSC.
Incidentally, in March 2025, the court issued a ruling obliging representatives of all interested parties to conduct a selective inspection of the hardware and software complexes. The parties were required to form a commission of at least three people to inspect a minimum of five Sergek complexes installed in Kostanay. The purpose of the inspection was to establish their conformity with the 'Sergek 2.1' hardware and software complex and to draw up the relevant reports.
The court decision did not go unnoticed by Sergek Group.
The company's Communications Director, Assel Kuzhakhmetova, issued an official statement: "We respect the court's decision but disagree with the conclusions on which it is based. For example, the decision points to a visual discrepancy in the installed equipment. It is unacceptable for conclusions about the non-conformity of a certified system to be made solely on the basis of a visual comparison — without analysing the technical specifications, operating parameters, and results of metrological verification. The court decision has not entered into legal force. We are currently preparing an appeal to contest it."
This situation unfolds against the backdrop of a larger problem. Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Technical Regulation and Metrology, Bauyrzhan Kassymov, recently stated that there are serious violations in the verification procedure for hardware and software complexes across the country as a whole. According to him, in 2024, territorial departments did not carry out mandatory checks of speed cameras, and many laboratories responsible for equipment verification committed violations, for which their licences were suspended for six months.
Of particular concern is the fact that the Committee for Technical Regulation does not have information about which specific cameras are operating without proper certificates, which casts doubt on the legality of all fines issued using unchecked equipment.
So what is the future for Sergek Group and the Sergek system? Against the backdrop of the court ruling in the Kostanay region and ongoing inspections across the country, a natural question arises about the company's prospects. Will Sergek Group be able to restore the trust of state bodies and continue working in the video recording systems market in Kazakhstan? Or does the company face a series of lawsuits and contract terminations in other regions? Much will likely depend on the outcome of the appeal filed and the company's ability to prove that the installed systems comply with all the technical and legal requirements of Kazakh legislation.
Recall that the FBKZ editorial team previously reported on the legal battles Korkem Telecom LLP has been fighting recently. Our attention was drawn to court cases in the country's largest cities.