Officials and Contractor Accused of Embezzling Nurly Jer Housing Funds

Under the pretext of construction, government officials and a contractor allegedly misappropriated funds allocated for the Nurly Jer state housing program. The case involving the fictitious construction project and millions of tenge has now reached court, Orda.kz reports.

According to the Aqmola Region Department of Financial Management, in 2020, the local construction department signed a contract worth more than 500 million tenge with NICS Engineering Group IV LLC.

For three years, the contractor, with the help of the head of a government agency, issued fictitious invoices with inflated volumes and costs. In fact, no work was carried out. The total damage was estimated at 152 million tenge,
 the Agency for Financial Monitoring (FMA) stated.

The court has since seized the suspects’ assets, valued at over 100 million tenge. The contractor has been taken into custody, and case materials have been forwarded to court.

The Nurly Jer program allowed citizens to obtain housing loans through Otbasy Bank at interest rates starting from 5% with a minimum 20% down payment. The program formally ended in 2022, but projects previously approved under its framework are still being completed.

Projects for which agreements were previously signed will be implemented under the terms of the Nurly Jer program. Agreements for new projects will be concluded within the framework of the ‘Concept for the Development of Housing and Utilities Infrastructure for 2023–2029,’
Otbasy Bank explained.

Earlier, it was reported that 540 million tenge was similarly embezzled in the West Kazakhstan region.

The funds, also allocated under the Nurly Jer program, were intended to finance the electricity supply for a residential area in Oral.

Original Author: Ruslan Loginov