Employees of the Anti-Corruption Agency detained Berik Aigeldin, the head of the Severo-Kazakhstan regional branch of the Enbek state enterprise, red-handed while receiving a bribe.
According to the press service of the Agency, Aigeldin received a bribe from an individual entrepreneur for the unimpeded signing of acts of acceptance and transfer of food products for convicts under a public procurement agreement.
“The suspect was placed in a temporary detention center in the city of Petropavlovsk. Taking into account the full confession of guilt and the received petition for the production of an accelerated pre-trial investigation, the investigating court chose a preventive measure in the form of house arrest against him. The degree of guilt of the person will be determined by the court. Other information in the interests of the investigation is not subject to disclosure.
It should be noted that the republican state enterprise “Enbek” is under the jurisdiction of the Committee of the Penitentiary System of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The enterprise was established by a decree of the government of Kazakhstan in 2008. The main goals and objectives of the Enbek are the implementation of production and economic activities in the field of the penitentiary system with the involvement of those sentenced to imprisonment in correctional institutions.
According to official figures, as of 2021, the total number of prisoners in Kazakhstan was 33,657. Of these, 19429 convicts were able-bodied. At the same time, 11,699 convicts were employed. 3126 of them worked in the structure of RSE Enbek.
It should also be noted that in August 2020, a rehabilitation procedure was applied to Enbek. The rehabilitation period was set until August 2025. This was done in order to prevent the bankruptcy of the enterprise, whose debt to suppliers amounted to about $4 million. As explained by the General Director of Enbek Daulet Aitzhanov, who was entrusted with the authority for the period of rehabilitation, the main reason for the loss of the company, which led to such debt, was corruption.
