Home with a surprise

A few days before the New Year, keys were handed over to those on the waiting list in the Martuk district center. 54 families moved into brand new houses not far from the police department, which looked like they were from a picture in the photo. At the celebration on this occasion, the Akim of the Martuk district, Medet YSKAKOV, only had time to take pictures with the new residents - orphans, mothers of many children and public sector employees.

Even the head of the region, Askhat SHAKHAROV, came to congratulate them the next day. The Akim of the Aktobe region visited one of those on the waiting list and drank tea with him.

A month after this event, keys were handed over to those on the waiting list in Martuk again. This time, 78 families celebrated Qonista - 39 two-apartment houses were built for them on the outskirts of Martuk. And again, joint commemorative photos, as well as publications in the official press, a-la the pace of housing construction in Martuk is growing every year.

"During the construction of these houses, all necessary work was carried out: windows and doors were installed, electricity and gas supply systems were installed. Intra-house communications and the heating system were fully commissioned," the Aktobe region akimat shared its positive experience.

And a month later, a scandal broke out. It turned out that the houses on the outskirts, which had been built for four years, were damp, had cracks, leaky pipes, snow-covered roofs, and uneven floors and walls. Those who had received housing in the district of the police department started talking about exactly the same shortcomings. Unlike those in the steppe, the houses there had been built in less than a year.

And the rent has also undergone some amazing metamorphoses.

Nina SHALPAKOVA is one of those who received a new house on the outskirts. The fact that the house was found to be a botched job does not bother the young woman.

- I'll figure it out somehow, I'd like to get the cost of the housing itself reduced. I was told that the house costs 21 million - housing that is slightly more than 60 square meters! Cottages are sold for that amount in Aktobe! - Shalpakova exclaims. - I stood in line for 17 years and finally got the house. But when I found out the conditions, I refused to sign the contract and returned the keys.

- The windows in the house don't open, the pipes are leaking, the house itself is in the steppe, it always floods here in the spring.

But the most outrageous thing is the price of the house. We demand a reduction in the cost of housing, - says another new resident Anastasia TSYMBAL. - I did not write a refusal of the house, otherwise we will lose the queue.

The situation is no better for those who moved into houses in the area of ​​the police department.

- Yes, the house is full of cracks. There were snowstorms the day before, so the roof is now covered in snow. It's also damp, condensation is collecting, dripping from the ceiling, - says Alesya BELASHOVA. - But I'm not moving out. Let them fix the deficiencies and reduce the cost of housing. What good is this - they officially said that we would pay 7.2 thousand tenge per month, but in fact we pay 15-19 thousand, not counting utilities! We also demand that the rent be used to pay for the cost of the house. Otherwise, they tell us that this is supposedly for... improvements!

- We have all the evidence of the defects in our hands, everything was filmed on video. Everything is leaking and drafty there. Let them repair these houses, bring them to perfection. They barely waited for their turn and got a botched job! - says another new resident, who introduced herself as Anya-apai.

The words of the new residents are confirmed by the anti-corruption agency, whose representatives, together with their volunteers, have already inspected the unfortunate houses. The visitors admit that when they visited Martuk, local officials tried to take them “to normal houses.”

- The quality of the constructed housing is really low. But the author and technical supervision were not bothered by this. One square meter in houses of such outrageous quality cost 324 thousand tenge, - says volunteer of the anti-corruption service Yerkebulat TAGANOV.

For comparison: in the regional center, a square meter in new brick houses built in 2024 costs 100 thousand tenge less.

It turned out that such expensive houses on the outskirts of Martuk were built by the company "KazPromStroyGroup". Antikor has already noted that the company that carried out the examination of the project with 39 houses is not a member of the chamber of expert organizations of Kazakhstan. In fact, in such cases, conclusions on the project can be issued in the shortest possible time without reviewing the document and without comments. This in turn can lead to low quality of the work performed.

Antikor also drew attention to the fact that the houses were built not in 9 months, but in all 43. However, the customer, represented by the construction department of the Martuksky district, did not go to court to recognize the contractor as an unscrupulous participant in public procurement and somehow punish him for the long-term construction.

In this regard, anticorrosion does not exclude the possibility of the customer’s favor towards the contractor.

The experts also found out that the working project provided for the installation of fences in the amount of 6.3 thousand square meters at a cost of 4.4 thousand tenge per square meter.

- However, according to the acts of acceptance of the completed works from April and December 2024, the cost of these works was 8.5 thousand tenge per square meter. That is, the total increase in cost was 26.2 million tenge, - noted the Department for Combating Corruption of the Aktobe Region. - In general, the total increase in the cost of the project according to the estimate was 144 percent. We believe that there are risks of artificially inflating the cost of the work.

As for the houses in the district of the police department, the Akimat bought them from a private owner. Information on the state procurement website on this matter shows that the budget bought two houses for 22 million, another 18 houses - for 19 million, the rest - for 14.5 million tenge.

Following the visit to the district center and inspection of rental houses, the anticor recommended reducing the cost of renting housing and eliminating the identified construction defects. The Martuk Akimat pledged to fulfill these instructions by May of this year.

The district akim Medet Yskakov has already started to go around the unfortunate houses. In his eyes, the new residents say, one could read surprise.

“I talked about repairs, but not about revising the rent,” Martuk residents shrug.

Akmaral MAYKOZOVA, Aktobe