Kazakhstan: healthcare officials convicted of embezzlement

In Almaty, the trial of embezzlement during the purchase of medical masks has come to the end. Six people were in the dock, including two former officials of the city’s public health department – deputy head Asel Bisenbaeva and specialist of the public procurement department of the Almaty cancer center Aidar Dzhumatayev.

Asel Bisenbaeva was appointed Deputy Head of the Public Health Department of Almaty in January 2019. Her responsibilities included, among other things, organizing the work of the commission for the purchase of goods, services and works, medicines, medical products, and medical equipment and participation in the organization of state procurement of medical products, as well as monitoring the targeted use of financial resources.

Aydar Dzhumatayev was hired as a specialist in the public procurement department of the Almaty Cancer Center in June last year, and in July he was seconded (due to operational needs) to the city’s Public Health Dept. His responsibilities included organizing and conducting public procurement, developing recommendations for the management of the Public Health Department on participation in tenders, developing technical documentation for procurement activities, monitoring tender results and price proposals, etc.

And then, according to the investigation, the events developed as follows.

In early July, the Almaty company Vipharm, the founder of which was Ershat Izakhunov, and the director was Ruslan Raziev, entered into an agreement with the Chinese company NANJING FENGYOU HANXUN INTERNATIONAL TRADE CO., LTD for the purchase of protective single-layer masks at a price of $ 0.049 per piece. Under this agreement, 2,122,500 masks were purchased for $ 104,002.

In mid-July, the firm entered into a million dollars agreement with another Chinese company, R.A.N. INTERNATIONAL TRADING LIMITED, for the purchase of three-layer medical masks worth $ 0.057 per piece. Under this agreement, 3 million masks were purchased for $ 171 thousand.

In the second half of July, an unemployed friend of Izakhunov, Bakhodir Doskanov, learned that the Public Health Dept. of Almaty plans to purchase more than four million medical (not protective) masks. It was then that the founder of Vipharm made up a criminal plan: he decided to sell to the Public Health Department the masks he had bought from Chinese companies, including protective masks under the pretext of medical ones. In addition, he decided to sell masks at an inflated price. To achieve this goal, Izakhunov and Raziev turned to the director of another Almaty company, Samgau Group, Vadim Kodintsev. It is noteworthy that the founder of Samgau Group is the Union of Organizations of Disabled People of Kazakhstan. According to the plan, Vipharm sold 4,050,000 masks to Samgau Group at an inflated price – $ 0.08 per piece – for a total of $ 324,393.

Then, the criminal group entered into an agreement with Asel Bisenbaeva and Aidar Dzhumatayev. They agreed that the Almaty Public Health Department will purchase masks from the Samgau Group company. To achieve this goal, Aydar Dzhumatayev had to determine the Samgau Group company as the winner of the public procurement tender. And Asel Bisenbaeva had to sign acts of acceptance and transfer of goods without checking the quality of the goods. The businessmen also agreed with officials that the Public Health Department will purchase masks at a price of $ 0.14 apiece – for a total of $ 570,145.

At the end of June 2020, the Almaty authorities received over $ 1.7 million from the republican budget for the purchase of personal protective equipment, including medical masks.

By the time of the public procurement tender, Vadim Kodintsev agreed with the directors of other firms that they also take part in the tender, but at the same time they declared an inflated cost of the goods – from $ 0.17 to $ 0.22 apiece, while Samgau Group intended set a price of $ 0.14 per piece. It is clear that with such a low price, Samgau Group, with the support of Dzhumatayev, will become a winner.

However, the appetites of the criminal group were not limited to this. Ruslan Raziev, director of Vipharm, imported Chinese disposable masks under the guise of medical masks, that is, as medical products. It should be clarified here that Kazakhstan, as a member of the Eurasian Customs Union, is subject to the general rules for customs clearance of goods. And medical products aimed at preventing coronavirus infection are exempt from import customs duties. By forging the necessary documents and obtaining an import permit, the criminal group was able to save $ 50.3 thousand on custom duties.

All the protective masks purchased by the Public Health Department were delivered to the Almaty City Clinical Hospital, and the person in charge of the hospital, being dependent on Asel Bisenbaeva, was forced to sign an acceptance certificate.

All the money received was divided among the members of the criminal group. As a result of all these machinations, the state suffered damage in the amount of $ 614 thousand. However, at the trial, all the defendants did not fully admit their guilt, and Bisenbaeva generally dismissed all the accusations against her.

However, the court considered the guilt of all the defendants proven and sentenced Asel Bisenbaeva to 7 years in prison with a life ban on working in the civil service. Aydar Dzhumatayev received a similar term. The founder of the Vipharm company, Ershat Izakhunov, was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison, and the director of this company, Ruslan Raziev, was sentenced to 7 years. Bakhodir Doskanov was also sentenced to a similar term. In turn, the director of the Samgau Group company Vadim Kodintsev was sentenced to 5 years in prison. In addition, the court satisfied the victims’ civil claim for damages.

It should be noted that the court’s verdict has not yet entered into legal force.

Meanwhile, on the Facebook page of Asel Bisenbaeva, a video message to the President of the country Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev was published. Apparently, the ex-official recorded a video message even before the court’s verdict.

“If this video is published, it means that I was convicted and I am in prison, then the court did not accept a single argument about my innocence,” says Bisenbaeva. – I am an honest and good person. I am not a thief, I am a doctor. I worked as a pediatrician for 17 years. Not a single colleague has said or will say anything bad about me. We honestly worked during the first wave of the pandemic and did not sit out at a distance. I have always fulfilled the instructions of the leadership of the city of Almaty and the heads of the Department of Public Health of the city ”.

According to Bisenbayeva, she, forced by the new head of the Public Health Department, Nadir Nadirov, wrote a letter of resignation on June 24, 2020, of her own free will. However, Nadirov forced her to work for another month after the order of dismissal.

“On July 23, 2020, I learned that contracts are being signed in my name on the public procurement portal without my knowledge,” Bisenbaeva explains, hinting that she was simply framed.