Kazakhstan: Former Minister of Public Health was arrested
Ex-Minister of Public Health of Kazakhstan Yelzhan Birtanov was arrested for two months with court sanction as part of a criminal investigation into the embezzlement of budget funds on an especially large scale. This was officially announced by the press service of the Financial Monitoring Committee of the Ministry of Finance.
As ACCA has already reported, mass detentions of Public Health officials began in Kazakhstan. In particular, the head of the health department of the West Kazakhstan region, Bolatbek Kayupov, was taken into custody. He is suspected of receiving a bribe in the amount of more than $ 18,000 for the acts of completed work and acceptance of inventory holdings, according to public procurement agreements previously concluded with one private company for the supply of medical equipment (monitors) totaling over $ 181,000. In Zhambyl region, a criminal case is being investigated against officials of the Regional health department for embezzlement of budget funds allocated to combat against the coronavirus pandemic by purchasing medical products at an overcharge cost. The damage to the state amounted to more than $ 20,000.
ACCA was among the first who reported about a pre-trial investigation against the former head of the Ministry of Health Yelzhan Birtanov. Now, this information has been officially confirmed.
According to preliminary data, the ex-Minister is suspected of embezzling more than $ 1.2 million of budget funds allocated for the industry digitalization program.
It should be noted that in early August, on similar suspicions, employees of the Economic Investigation Service of the Financial Monitoring Committee under the Ministry of Finance detained former Vice Minister of Public Health Olzhas Abishev, who held this post when Birtanov was the head of the Ministry of Health.
Yelzhan Birtanov began his ascent to the post of Minister in 2008. Then, he was appointed advisor to the Prime Minister. At that time, the head of the country’s government was Karim Masimov, who now heads the National Security Committee.
In the same year, Birtanov was appointed to the post of Vice Minister of Public Health. He was holding this post for two years. By the way, at that time, the Ministry of Health was headed by Zhaksylyk Doskaliyev, against whom a case was initiated in 2010 on charges of abuse of power and abuse of office, as well as taking a bribe on an especially large scale and embezzling budget funds. In August 2011, Doskaliyev was sentenced to 7 years in prison with confiscation of property. However, in March 2012, Doskaliyev was already at large; he was released on parole. Literally immediately after leaving the prison, Doskaliyev was again admitted to the civil service as a research assistant at the National Scientific Medical Center, despite his previous convictions, and since 2013 he has been the head of the Republican Transplant Center.
However, the arrest of Minister Doskaliyev had no effect on the career of Vice Minister Yelzhan Birtanov. On the contrary, it did him good. While his former boss was under investigation, Birtanov headed the National Medical Holding. Two years later, he became an advisor to the chairman of the executive council at Nazarbaev’s University, then moved to the post of chairman of the board of the Center for support of public-private partnership projects, and in 2015 he returned to the chair of Vice Minister of Public Health. In 2017, apparently, when things around Doskaliyev were calmed down, Birtanov became the head of the Ministry of Health. And he held this post until mid-2020. On June 25, the President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed the decree on the resignation of Birtanov, as he allegedly needed additional treatment after suffering the coronavirus.
However, it cannot be said that there were no complaints about Minister Birtanov. On the contrary! Before his resignation, the Ministry of Health was periodically feverish with different sorts of scandals.
Also it should be noted that Yelzhan Birtanov has a brother, Eszhan Birtanov, who is currently the deputy head of the National Bank of Kazakhstan.
