Vice Minister of Finance Responds to Allegations over Omarket Procurement Platform

Vice Minister of Finance Yerzhan Birzhanov has commented on recent claims by the Financial Monitoring Agency (FMA) regarding alleged violations in the public procurement system through the Omarket platform, Orda.kz reports.

Speaking at a government press conference, Birzhanov addressed the heightened public attention surrounding the platform — including speculation linking him to Darkhan Birzhanov, head of Omarket.

There’s a lot of buzz around this portal. Some have claimed the director is my relative, but we only share a last name — we were born in different places. The project began before I arrived, was implemented, and proved effective for timely procurement decisions. We can provide year-by-year savings figures if needed. As for the FMA, it’s a law enforcement body, so they may have carried out preliminary checks and calculations,
 the vice minister stated.

Responding to concerns about pricing transparency — the FMA had cited examples of packaging tape listed for both 2 tenge and 99,000 tenge — Birzhanov explained that the portal handles only a portion of state procurement, while larger purchases are conducted through the main government procurement platform.

If there are discrepancies or valid suggestions, we’ll adjust the portal’s operation. Whether an item costs five or ten tenge is a market offer — I can’t filter or censor them. If prices are nonstandard, we will analyze the causes,
 he added.

Earlier, FMA Deputy Chair Kairat Bizhanov reported findings of irregularities on the Omarket platform.

A selective audit of 8,000 contracts worth 8.3 billion tenge revealed signs of price inflation totaling nearly four billion tenge, inconsistencies between initial and final prices, and cases where price offers were deleted after contract signing.

Original Author: Ilya Astakhov