June 26, 2023

The new law on public procurement was discussed in the Mazhilis

The draft law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Public Procurement” was discussed at the meeting of the Public Chamber under the Mazhilis of the Parliament.

During the meeting, Kazakh political scientist Daniyar Ashimbayev expressed his opinion about frequent changes in the legislation on public procurement.

“If we remember, for the first time the regulation of public procurement was adopted by a government decree in 1996. Then, from 1997 to 2002, 2007, 2015, laws on public procurement were adopted. Moreover, amendments to the previous law were adopted twice a year. Amendments to the current law are adopted quarterly. Now we are discussing a lot of issues, but there are no guarantees that a bill will appear in just a month or two, and then the next amendments will be initiated. All this, of course, is formulated as an improvement, modernization, but from the outside it gives the impression of complete instability of the legislation,” he said.

In this regard, Daniyar Ashimbayev proposed to introduce a three-year ban on amendments and additions after the adoption of the bill. And all further adjustments should be made through by-laws.

Vice Minister of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan Dauren Kenbeil in his response noted that public procurement is one of the complexly regulated spheres of public relations, which is constantly being improved.

“And the amendments that we are making to the law, if studied, are not aimed at changing, but at improving through change. Why? Our suppliers, after the adoption of the amendments in a month, are already starting to look for workarounds of this amendment. And we are starting to close this bypass. And it happens all the time. Since 2016, the law has been changed by 70% in order to improve. Just for that. If the deputies come out for the stability of the law, we will not mind, but with the condition that everything will be at the level of the by-law, at the level of the rules. We cannot ban it,” he commented.

According to the Vice Minister, the draft law proposes to place the progress of construction of an object in public access through the space monitoring system. It is also proposed to connect public chambers under akimats, the national Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken” and other public organizations to monitoring.

“We also propose to expand the use of the information system of government agencies. The rating-point system receives information about the supplier from two sources – a database of the State Revenue Committee and a database of work experience. We propose to expand the list of information systems so that we receive data about a potential supplier not only from two systems, but also from other systems – the first credit bureau, court databases, bankruptcy databases. This will allow us to further expand the quality characteristics of the supplier and purchase quality services,” added Dauren Kenbeil.

At the same time, the draft law provides for the introduction of the concept of sustainable procurement, green procurement and the introduction of EPC contracts, when construction contracts are concluded turnkey, that is, by the same supplier. This, according to the Vice Minister, will provide an opportunity to build facilities more efficiently and quickly.