The Anti-Corruption Service identified systemic corruption risks in the road sector of the Turkestan region.
According to the press service of the agency, law enforcement officers established facts of unjustified conclusion of contracts for 2.2 billion tenge for the construction and repair of roads using a non-competitive method.
"Akimats selected specific contractors under the pretext of the need to eliminate the consequences of emergency situations or procure intellectual property objects. This made it possible to bypass competitive procedures and give preference to firms without work experience and resources", the statement said.
At the same time, akimats unjustifiably included costs for unforeseen expenses in the estimate, which led to an increase in the cost of work by 177 million tenge.
Furthermore, local executive bodies spent 210 million tenge on the development of design and estimate documentation (PSD) that was not needed.
Following the analysis, those responsible were brought to justice, and the akimat of the Turkestan region excluded unforeseen expenses for medium road repairs. At the same time, the Anti-Corruption Service initiated legislative changes to prevent the development of PSD without funding.
Recall that in October, the Anti-Corruption Service identified systemic corruption risks in the country's road sector. It was noted then that over 2023-2024, government agencies received more than 20,000 complaints from citizens about the poor quality of roads. The public linked this to corruption.
Since the beginning of 2024, the Anti-Corruption Service has registered 24 criminal cases in this sector. Agency employees found that corruption risks are observed at all stages of road construction and repair.
In early December, the Anti-Corruption Service identified unjustified overpricing of work costs during monitoring of road construction and repair in the Kostanay region. Akimats included unforeseen expenses in the repair estimate amounting to 2% of the project amount, whereas such costs are not provided for by law. As a result, the cost of road repairs increased by 840 million tenge.
Shortly before this, the prosecutor's office of Kyzylorda found that the city akimat did not send a notice to the authorised body about the start of road repair works. It emerged that the city akimat began repairs on four streets without sending a notification to the control department of the Kyzylorda region. As a result, officials were brought to administrative responsibility and fined an administrative penalty in the amount of 25 MCI (92,300 tenge).