Olga Voronko, a well-known journalist of the Internet media Ratel.kz, received an unusual New Year’s gift from the law enforcement agency. A criminal case was opened against her under part 5 of article 147 of the Criminal Code – “Dissemination of information about the private life of a person constituting his personal or family secret, without his consent in the media, or causing significant harm to the rights and legitimate interests of a person as a result of illegal collection and (or) processing of other personal data”.
On December 26, the portal Ratel.kz posted the article of Olga Voronko under the headline “21-year-old police officer arms the police”. It described how the police department of Pavlodar region organized the state purchase of protective ammunition (bullet-proof vests, helmets, batons, shockproof shields and helmet visors) worth over $ 1.2 million.
According to Olga Voronko, initially, the police department organized the public procurement through a tender. The corresponding announcement was posted on the website goszakup.kz on October 28 at 9 am. Those, who wanted to take part in the tender, were given time to submit applications until 18.00 on the same day. Despite such a short period of time, 12 potential suppliers managed to submit the application.
However, the police department canceled this competition and, behind the backs of entrepreneurs, organized a state procurement in a way from a single source. The firm, which the police decided to trust, became SECURITY FACTORY, created two months before the organization of the tender, the founder of which is a certain 21-year-old Erbolat Aydarkhanov.
Voronko also found out that the addresses, at which SECURITY FACTORY is actually and legally registered, are fake; Aydarkhanov is also an employee of another company “Security Company SOVA – Pavlodar”, which also took part in the first tender for the supply of ammunition.
In addition, in this whole story, another curious fact was revealed: the police department, according to the terms of the contract, had to pay for the ammunition after its delivery within 30 days, that is, not on a prepaid basis. So, journalist Olga Voronko asked, “Where did the yesterday’s college graduate, who allegedly opened his own company, get $ 1.2 million to purchase the appropriate goods for further resale to the police? In addition, another question arose, “How did he manage to obtain the special permission of the National Security Committee, which was required for the supply of arms?
It’s quite logical that other companies that took part in the competition, which was later canceled, didn’t agree with this decision and turned to the President Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev, the Prosecutor General, the Anti-Corruption Agency, the Accounts Committee and the Internal State Audit Committee under the Ministry of Finance, accusing the police department of Pavlodar region of bad faith.
Voronko wrote about all this in her article.
“Investigator of the Investigation Department Daniyar Balyzhanov (as I heard) called me and said that a criminal case was opened against me for disclosing information from the public procurement website about the purchase of bullet-proof vests by the police department from one source. He said that he was also very surprised, why it was necessary to initiate a case for open information, and asked to send him all my documents. At the same time, he assured that it was not he, who was conducting the case, but he was allegedly simply very surprised when he discovered a registered case against me,” Olga Voronko wrote on her Facebook page 3 days after the article was posted.
The post caused a stir among local journalists. They tried to find out from the police all the details of the case. However, the press service of the police department ignored these requests.
From her unofficial sources, Voronko found out that the case against her was initiated on the basis of the statement of the SECURITY FACTORY’s owner Erbolat Aydarkhanov.
Meanwhile, as noted in the International Foundation for the Defense of Freedom of Expression “Adil Soz”, Olga Voronko’s post was made in accordance with the President Tokayev’s line of completely eradicating corruption and participating in the fight against this evil of society and the media.
“Neither the accusation of disclosing state secrets, as reported to the journalist by the investigator, nor the accusation of disclosing secrets of private life, which Olga Voronko learned unofficially, are inapplicable to her article.
The posting of announcement by the police department of Pavlodar city on the website goszakup.kz about public procurement in the form of tender for the purchase of this equipment and information on access of 12 potential participants to it indicates that this information doesn’t constitute state secrets and doesn’t contain official information of limited distribution.
Private life is understood as the physical and spiritual sphere of a person, which includes the family and everyday life of the individual, his communication, attitude to religion, off-duty activities, hobbies and other areas of relations that the person himself doesn’t want to make public. Personal and family secrets are known to relate to private life and include the secret of adoption, the private life of spouses, personal property and non-property relations existing in the family, and other information.
An individual’s participation in public procurement can in no way be attributed to the private life of a citizen, his family and personal life. Thus, the journalist’s article doesn’t disclose information about personal data, but it’s a question of non-compliance with the qualification requirements of the recipient of the state order,” the Foundation said in its official statement.
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