The construction of a gas pipeline costing over 768 million tenge in the village of Karatal ended in a court dispute: the customer found discrepancies between the completed work and project documentation. The court ordered the contractor to return tens of millions of tenge to the budget, and the appeal left the ruling unchanged, reports infohub.kz.
The Department of Energy and Housing and Communal Services of the Zhetysu region entered into a public procurement contract with an LLP for the construction of a gas pipeline and gas distribution networks in the village of Karatal, Eskeldi district, Almaty region. The total cost of the project exceeded 768 million tenge.
At the initiative of the customer, a construction and technical inspection was conducted, which revealed discrepancies between the volume of actual work performed and the design estimate documentation. In particular, when constructing the gas pipeline support bases, the contractor used significantly less concrete than the project required.
The Specialized Interdistrict Economic Court, for a comprehensive examination of the circumstances, reviewed expert opinions and held an on-site hearing with an additional inspection of the object at the construction site. The court concluded that the contractor could not confirm the planned volume of work, and the plaintiff's evidence indicated a partial failure to fulfill contractual obligations.
The first instance partially granted the claim: the contractor was ordered to pay 45.9 million tenge to the republican budget and 1.4 million tenge in state duties. The request to declare the company an unscrupulous participant in public procurement was rejected, since the circumstances for such a claim arose after the contract was executed.
The LLP filed an appeal, but the judicial panel for civil cases of the Zhambyl Regional Court found no grounds to change the decision and upheld it. The court rulings have entered into force.