A meeting of the House took place today, chaired by Speaker of the Senate Maulen Ashimbayev, at which senators considered the bill “On Making Amendments and Additions to Some Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Public Procurement, Procurement of Subsoil Users and Natural Monopoly Entities, Communications, Road Transport and Defense” on second reading.
Following a detailed review of the bill on first reading at the meeting of the House and at the meetings of the Committees, deputies have prepared a package of amendments and additions related, inter alia, to public procurement.
For instance, senators supported the innovations previously outlined in the bill to reduce the number of grounds for single-source public procurement, the personal responsibility of the customer’s CEOs for such procurements, etc. However, it was additionally proposed to exclude the possibility of one company to participate in public procurement for engineering services and construction and assembly works on the same construction object, as well as the inclusion of e-stores in competitive methods of public procurement. According to senators, this is important to reduce corruption risks and improve the quality of the facilities under construction.
“The major changes provide for further improvement of legislation on public procurement. Special attention is paid to the minimization of corruption risks during the tender process. The bill will simplify public procurement procedures and eliminate unnecessary regulation. Thereby, this will allow to conduct effective public procurement and save public funds,” Maulen Ashimbayev said.
Moreover, quickly responding to public demand, senators also added new norms to the bill to ensure the safety of the population. In particular, the need to establish criteria for defining ammunition, the further storage of which poses a real danger and requires immediate destruction, was noted.
“The amendments introduced by the Senate are aimed at regulation of measures on storage and disposal of ammunition. These measures are intended to prevent future tragedies at the country’s armament depots from happening again,” Maulen Ashimbayev explained the proposal made by senators.
Along with this, senators also put new norms to the bill aimed at the development of domestic science.
“The amendments approved by the Senate serve to fulfill the instruction of the Head of State on the further development of the science sphere. Specifically, it is proposed to provide payment for the top scientists of the country through the base funding, the introduction of a new type of funding for direct support of scientific institutions engaged in basic scientific research. Furthermore, it is offered to extend the term of funding scientific, scientific-technical projects and programs from three to five years,” the Chairman of the House said.
Hence, based on the results of consideration of the bill on second reading, senators decided to return the document to the Mazhilis.
Moreover, in the course of the meeting, the Law “On Ratification of the Protocol for the Protection of the Caspian Sea against Pollution from Land-Based Sources and Activities to the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea” was considered and adopted.
Also, at the suggestion of the Speaker of the House, deputies appointed a member of the Accounts Committee for Control over Execution of the Republican Budget. It was Rasul Rakhimov.
During the meeting, senators also announced their deputy inquiries.
Sultan Dyussembinov raised several questions on the development of tourism in the Almaty region.
And Akhylbek Kurishbayev pointed to the importance of increasing security at educational facilities.
(Press Office of the Senate, 74-72-27. Photo by E. Ukibayev)
