Last year, the implementation period for the project on reconstruction and development of street lighting in the cities of the East Kazakhstan Region came to an end. However, the promising initiative was not fully realised. What is behind this failure?
In 2017, the East Kazakhstan Region, then headed by Danial Akhmetov, received a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to modernise street lighting systems.
At that time, around 4.8 billion tenge was allocated for installing lamps under the project, of which 3.6 billion tenge was a loan from the European bank, and 1.2 billion tenge came from the regional budget. The programme operator was the Public-Private Partnership Centre (PPPC) under the Akimat of the East Kazakhstan Region. It appears that problems began around then.
According to some media reports, after receiving the European loan, over 16,000 light points in Ust-Kamenogorsk were transferred from municipal ownership into the ownership of the PPP Centre. Incidentally, more than half of the allocated budget, namely 2.9 billion tenge, went to Ust-Kamenogorsk.
Notably, when the PPP Centre took over more than half of the city's light points, it apparently could not even carry out lighting works due to a lack of permits.
In 2022, acting regional Akim Almaskhan Smatlaev spoke about the positive socio-economic development of the region and also announced plans to install 1,300 light points as part of cooperation with the EBRD. It would seem that by 2022, the installation of street lights should have been nearing completion, given that the project's term expired in 2023.
However, this is extremely difficult to assess, as the details of the agreement with the EBRD are shrouded in mystery, as is the reason why a significant portion of Ust-Kamenogorsk's light points were transferred to the PPP Centre. Yet Mr Smatlaev chose to remain silent on this matter.
Incidentally, Almaskhan Smatlaev served as Deputy Akim of the East Kazakhstan Region from 2018 to 2023, meaning he had the opportunity to participate in the street lighting modernisation project, or rather, its pretence.
As of today, according to the regional Akim Yermek Kosherbayev, the East Kazakhstan Region is repaying the loan using budget funds, partly due to the substandard work carried out in the initial stages.
The costs were not recouped. The modernisation over 6 years was never carried out. Yet there is a feeling that someone must have been satisfied. After all, the initiative was, in essence, a good one, but the project itself seems to have served someone's interests, and clearly not the public's.