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Samruk-Kazyna Construction JSC responded to criticism from the Chairman of the Supreme Audit Chamber of the Republic of Kazakhstan Natalya Godunova.

The National Company stated that purchases under the Comfortable Schools National Project are carried out in a special manner, in accordance with the rules of the Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund. Public procurement rules for government bodies do not apply to enterprises in the quasi-public sector.

- The procedures are fundamentally different from standard public procurement in a special way, in particular, companies are subject to strict qualification requirements, high thresholds are set. Thus, one-day firms or unscrupulous contractors who do not have relevant experience do not qualify, - said Maulen Aimanbetov, Chairman of the Board of Samruk-Kazyna Construction JSC.

SK Construction also noted that the potential contractor provides a bank guarantee, which motivates him to complete the work on time and not be included in the list of unscrupulous suppliers. At the same time, this gives a guarantee of the safety of budgetary funds in the event of dishonesty of one or another contractor.

- We understand the concern of our colleagues from the competent authorities and support initiatives to control the spending of budget funds. However, it is important to understand the nuances in detail so that there are no misunderstandings and misconceptions about the implementation of the National Project, Aymanbetov noted. - As for control, we have developed and put into operation an electronic cross-platform, where all the necessary documents for each object are collected, this allows the supervisory authorities to control the situation in real time. This is also facilitated by photo and video surveillance, which will be installed at construction sites and technical supervision, which is carried out by one to three of our inspectors permanently assigned to each facility. This is also a novelty, since usually in practice one inspector oversees several projects.

In addition, the contractor will report weekly on the progress of construction in electronic format - this has never happened before, and thus control is carried out in parallel at several levels. By the way, the Cross-Platform was agreed with all supervisory and regulatory authorities, including the Accounts Committee (now the Supreme Audit Chamber of the Republic of Kazakhstan), so that contractors are not subjected to excessive checks. Since all the necessary documentation for inspections is available in a single electronic database, where everything is open and transparent.

“Potential suppliers submit their applications using this portal in electronic form, which also eliminates corruption risks and makes the procedure transparent and open,” Aymanbetov emphasized.

In addition, Samruk-Kazyna Construction JSC noted that a commission of 44 people was created as part of the implementation of the National Project:

competitive commission - 13 people;
expert commission - 21 people;
observers - 11 people.

The list of observers included deputies of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, members of the public councils of the Ministry of Education, NWF Samruk-Kazyna, NCE Atameken and representatives of the akimats of Astana, Akmola and Karaganda regions. Observers were given access to the portal.

It is important to note that the Directorate for the implementation of the National Project has formed a strict construction schedule, now the design and estimate documentation is being developed, which will subsequently undergo state expertise and after that specific numbers for student places will be determined, all budget funds will be used for their intended purpose. It is also important that a unified approach to the design of comfortable schools has been developed, a single operator has been identified, and a single technical task has been developed. This makes it possible to build equally high-quality schools in all regions of the country.

- In all twenty regions, branches, our representative offices have been created, staffed for the implementation of the Comfortable School National Project. Despite the bureaucratic delays in terms of responsibility and decision-making, a lot of work has been done, - added Maulen Aimanbetov, - Appropriate changes have been made to the budget code, civil law transactions have been drawn up, project management has been written, the responsibility of the parties has been prescribed, this project is being implemented for the first time, especially in such a grandiose scale and in such a short time, therefore it is important to carefully prescribe each stage for the successful implementation of the project. Our requirements are strict, they discipline both us and contractors.

It is important to recall that in the Government Decree, the responsibility for the implementation of the National Project is clearly defined and assigned to the Ministry of Education, local executive bodies in the regions of the country and Samruk-Kazyna Construction JSC, which is the Directorate for the construction of comfortable schools. By the way, all the planned about 400 schools, including 183 in rural areas, will absolutely not differ from each other both externally and in terms of internal equipment and equipment. Thus, schoolchildren in the city and in the countryside will have equal access to quality education. And it is the Comfortable School National Project that makes such progress in this direction.

Recall that the Comfortable School national project is aimed at eliminating three-shift education, accidents and inconvenience of schools in the city and in the countryside.