For some time now, JSC «Almaty Development Centre» has been under the close scrutiny of journalists. The organisation, which is completely controlled by the Almaty akimat, spends billions of tenge every year, and on top of that, manages to invest "surplus" state funds in securities and deposits.
Let's take a closer look at the company's activities.
JSC «Almaty Development Centre» was created by the akimat to implement projects related to the development of urban infrastructure. The company was registered in 2008, and since then the joint-stock company has paid approximately 5.7 billion tenge in taxes.
The company's first head since 2022 is Andrey Shovkoplyas.
The editorial team of the Shishkin_like channel found out, that according to the audit report for 2023, the company's revenue last year amounted to 3.3 billion tenge, which includes income from core activities of 2 billion tenge and the rest from rewards on treasury operations and deposits.
It is worth noting that in 2023, JSC «Almaty Development Centre» had 5.1 billion tenge in temporarily surplus funds, of which 4.3 billion tenge were invested in government securities, and 825 million tenge were held in bank deposits.
At the same time, in 2022, the amount of temporarily surplus funds invested in securities and deposits was 4.1 billion tenge. In other words, in just one year the company gained an additional 1 billion tenge in surplus funds.
As for the joint-stock company's expenses, in 2023 this figure in monetary terms was 2 billion tenge.
It is also reported that the company has one company car and 333 sq m of rented space. In 2023, the Centre spent 75 million tenge on renting premises and office furniture.
The executive body of the joint-stock company received a total of 123 million tenge in 2023. For comparison, in 2022 this amount was 95.8 million tenge.
In total, 198 million tenge was spent on renting premises and remunerating the company's top managers. It makes you wonder what the remaining sum was spent on?
The editorial team of the Shishkin_like channel calculated, that the total value of all contracts of JSC «Almaty Development Centre» related to the Almaty akimat is 11.5 billion tenge.
The main customer is the city's Digitalisation Department, with which the company has concluded contracts totalling 7 billion tenge over the entire period, of which 2.7 billion tenge were agreed in 2024.
It should be noted that state contracts are awarded to the Centre without any competitive procedures – contracts with it are concluded from a single source.
This year, the Digitalisation Department concluded a contract with the «Almaty Development Centre» for maintaining public communications for Open Almaty worth 910.8 million tenge.
This was recently reported by the editorial team of Protenge.
It was reported that the contract sum includes maintenance of the resource open-almaty.kz and network platforms, including the city akimat's social media accounts, as well as a call centre accepting calls from 6:00 to 24:00, a front office in the city centre, and others.
Last year, Open Almaty's services cost the city budget 860.6 million tenge – 50 million less than in 2024.
Another project generating keen interest was the Unified Video Monitoring System, the maintenance of which cost 1.2 billion tenge. The system allows government bodies, commercial and academic organisations to exchange "depersonalised" data.
Journalists from the Shishkin_like channel suggested that in this contract, JSC «Almaty Development Centre» is acting as an "intermediary".
The subcontractor on the project is the company Inova Tech, which has a separate contract with the Centre for cloud storage for the Almaty Unified Video Monitoring System project, where the Centre acts as the customer. The contract amount is 1.1 billion tenge.
This also includes a contract for providing data from the Almaty development indicator monitoring system (situation centre) worth 523 million tenge.
Moreover, last year the situation centre cost the department 385.6 million tenge – 4.5 times cheaper, and the costly contract for maintaining the system for 1.2 billion tenge did not exist at all back then.
In 2023, JSC «Almaty Development Centre» concluded contracts for the provision of consulting services in the financial sector with the city's Economy Department worth 157.8 million tenge and with the apparatus of the Akim of Almaty worth 808.2 million tenge.
This year, the Centre concluded three similar contracts with the Economy Department totalling 1.2 billion tenge.
Journalist Dmitry Shishkin suggested, that the essence of the existence of JSC «Almaty Development Centre» is to "facilitate" the akimat's process of selecting a supplier.
"The essence of its existence, apparently, is to make the tender issue easier for the akimat – it allocates budget money without a tender to the 'Development Centre', which in turn passes it on to contractors. For example, under Baibek, 2.1 billion tenge was channelled to Panfilov Street through this JSC. This clever JSC was created under Yessimov, it expanded under Baibek, but reached its greatest turnover under what seemed like the 'new Kazakhstan' – under Dosayev," - the journalist wrote on his personal Facebook page.
However, one should not think that such an organisation operates only in Almaty.
LLP «Astana Development Centre», established in 2015 by the capital's akimat, carries out activities "to attract and support investors in Astana and to develop tourism in the capital".
In 2023, the company was headed by Rinat Akberdin. According to data from the kompra.kz service, over the entire period of the partnership's activity, tax deductions to the budget amounted to about 407 million tenge.
Moreover, tax revenues increased significantly in 2024 – by 252%, exceeding 234 million tenge.
The editorial team of the Shishkin_like channel notes, that LLP «SPK Astana Development», previously owned by JSC «SPK «Astana», was transferred to the capital's Department of Assets and Public Procurement last year, and was subsequently renamed LLP «Astana Development Centre».
Incidentally, several years ago, the activities of social-entrepreneurial corporations were criticised by the Anti-Corruption Agency, which pointed out the discrepancy between their actual activities and their stated goals and objectives.
It was also at that time – in 2023 – that LLP «Astana Development Centre» began receiving large state contracts. Since April 2023, the Centre has concluded 11 contracts totalling about 4.2 billion tenge.
By the end of 2023, the company had concluded 28 investment contracts totalling 45.2 billion tenge, earning 1.5 billion tenge, of which 56 million tenge was net income.
In March last year, the company received 159 investment projects from LLP «GCRI «AstanaInvest» with a total investment amount of 454.7 billion tenge.
The book value of assets at the beginning of 2024 is 401.4 million tenge.
This year, LLP «Astana Development Centre» concluded 6 contracts from a single source with the Department for Investment and Entrepreneurship Development totalling about 2.6 billion tenge.
The editorial team of Shishkin_like analysed the three most expensive contracts for 2024 where LLP «Astana Development Centre» acted as the customer.
One of the largest is the contract for holding the COMIC CON Astana festival worth 800 million tenge. The supplier was LLP «United Kingdom». Incidentally, last year the festival was run by the same advertising company, although then the contract amount was half that – 400 million tenge.
It is noted that the parties concluded the contract outside of competitive procedures.
However, the contract for conducting a social tour of the capital for children from low-income families was signed with the supplier - LLP «Bestar Travel» based on the results of an open competition.
The partnership offered the lowest price – 83 million tenge. However, the final cost of the tour increased by almost 10 million tenge, amounting to 92.9 million tenge.
A similar situation occurred with the selected supplier of services for renting administrative/industrial premises - LLP «PPR Service». The company submitted a price offer of 59 million tenge, after which the contract amount rose to 66 million tenge.
It appears that LLP «Astana Development Centre» operates similarly to JSC «Almaty Development Centre», acting as a kind of bridge between the state budget and the contractor, while also managing to hold onto surplus funds, which, as journalist Dmitry Shishkin aptly noted, "are always in short supply for something".