KZBlog

I’ve mentioned before the phenomenon in Kazakhstan that people don’t pay their utility bills. Often, when I complain about this, people tell me that those who don’t pay are too poor. However when I see my neighbors driving Porsche Cayennes and new BMWs (or reporting robberies of 5 computers from their apartment), I find it hard to believe that they are poor. Now here’s proof that the rich and powerful don’t pay their bills.

Senator Muktar Alytnbayev admits that he failed to pay his utility bills on his house. It’s reported that he owes approximately one million tenge, which would be around $7000. Our largest utility bill ever was around $400 (in the middle of a very cold winter and our building management had some extra expenses). Taking that as a base, Altynbayev didn’t pay his bills for 16 months!

But for someone who participates in approving the laws for the country, he has a good excuse. He forgot. And it’s his assistant’s fault anyway.

Unfortunately, I made the list [of people who didn’t pay their bills]. Everyone makes mistakes. In the first place, I am to blame, of course. I apologize to the public and to the utility companies. Well, let’s say that this mistake was made by one of my assistants. This issue was solved yesterday and by the end of today this issue will be resolved. It’s not that I don’t have money, it’s just I missed the deadline.

Why the Senator, who is a former Minister of Defense and General, expects his assistant at work to remember details of his personal home is another question. The scandal has also raised the question of whether Altynbayev had the right to lease his home to an Arabian embassy, as he did. There is a question of conflict of interest, I suppose, as well as whether an MP can get money from a foreign government.

The article on zakon.kz also claims that the list of powerful people who have not paid their bills includes the names Akmetov (former Prime Minister and Minister of Defense) and Amrin (former head of the Innovation Fund, and head of the KNB). The blacklist came out when the President ordered city governments to publish lists of debtors publicly. I would have made announcements before the news of Khabar, complete with photos, names, addresses and photos of their cars. But the President’s idea seems to have been succesfull as well.