Private expert organizations of Kazakhstan are in favor of the creation of the own single portal of the Chamber on expert organizations

Discussions on this issue were held during the meeting at the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs in the selectoral format. In addition to representatives of the Committee for Construction, Housing and Land Management of the MNE of RK, RSE "State expertise", accredited expert organizations from all regions of Kazakhstan were able to attend the discussion of this topic.

The mode of the event was set by the moderator, deputy chairman of NCE RK "Atameken" Yuliya Yakupbaeva, who asked the legitimate question: Is it acceptable that a subject of the state monopoly runs the unified portal of expertise (including expertise, which is not related to the state monopoly). "In our view, more appropriate would be to create two separate portals for organizing and conducting a comprehensive departmental expertise of projects classified as a state monopoly, as well as for comprehensive departmental expertise of projects carried out by the private market", - she said.

The fact is that RSE "State expertise" offered the private expert organizations to use the services of their Single portal, while assuring that the integration with the information system of RSE will be free of charge. "In principle, any organization engaged in the development of programs that meets the requirements of the organization process of the comprehensive expertise, has the right to develop software by the order of an expert organization. Integration of the portal is free of charge ", - said the representative of RSE "State expertise" Aset Mardenov.

Currently, the portal of the state expertise contains information about the four private expert companies, which are not members of the Chamber of expert organizations. In this regard, Yuliya Yakupbaeva asked representatives of RSE "State expertise" the question how four companies registered within the portal, receive orders, however, they are not members of the Chamber of expert organizations? After all, according to the law on architectural activity, a private expert company must be accredited by the national authority. And the second - the company must be a member of the Chamber of expert organizations.

As it was stated by the deputy chairman, NCE raised the issue of the legitimacy of the expert opinions of expert organizations that are not members of the Chamber of expert organizations that receive orders via the portal at the site of the Council on the protection of the rights of entrepreneurs with the participation of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Kazakhstan.

As it noted by the private expert organizations, in the case of a single portal of state expertise, there is a reasonable question: how save will be in this case the confidentiality of the information, as it can be considered a trade secret.

"The agreement arises a lot of questions, which states that the operator of the Single State expertise portal has access to information that presents a trade secret, and which is our property, and at the request of the authorized body transmits such information. This environment is competitive, and it is inconceivable that confidential information can be available to a wide range of persons, other market participants. Therefore, the Chamber of expert organizations should have its own, independent single portal different from the one of RSE “State expertise", - said the advisor to the Chairman  “BI Group Construction” Berlik Erezhepov.

According to him, the function on the portal, which allows to verify the completeness of design and estimate documentation, is illegal. "Testing of complexity is a function of the accredited organization. Thus, it means that the operator the single portal takes over the function of an accredited organization. The Chamber of expert organizations as a non-profit organization must be the operator of the portal. This is a common position of ALE "National Association of designers of Kazakhstan", which agreed on the opinion that it will not allow the placement of documents on the portal of the State expertise for a wide range of people", - said the representative of “BI Group Construction”.

The representative of LLP "EkspertAstana" raised the question of the cost of creation of information systems that are required for integration into a single portal of State Expertise. According to him, the sum of the installation of the software for integration into the information system of the State Expertise ranges today from 900 thousand to 10 million tenge, which is unaffordable for some private organizations. "It is not wise to put private companies in such conditions, it looks like an artificial constraint barrier", - he said. At the same time, he stressed that if by the order of the Head of State the expertise will be shifted to a private competitive environment, this means that any private organization with equal rights should be placed on the portal of the state expertise. "Because they do not compete with each other. They are separated not economically, but technologically, by the type of rendered services. That is, State expertise considers more complex projects, less complex are covered by private expert organizations, but the rights must be the same", - he explained.

The same opinion was expressed by representatives of expert organizations of Pavlodar. According to them, the development of software for the integration of information of expert organizations with a single portal of State expertise requires 9 million tenge, and its production takes up to 4 to 6 months. "Expert organizations, which have applied at the beginning of the year, will receive software only in May, but it is again down time for entrepreneurs, who could not carry out their activities previously due to the lack of legal framework", - they noted.

In turn, the representative of Kostanay expert center Svetlana Ostapchuk shared the sad experience of the work with the single portal of RSE "State expertise". "They have granted us an office free of charge, where we worked from April to October. Then within 6 months the problem of industrial safety expertise was being solved, in the end the expertise was cancelled due to the amendments to the legislation and, as a consequence, companies were left without work. The Agreement of RSE contradicts to the law with regard to the independence of experts, where the operator of the portal has a right to access to any information ", - she said.

Expert organizations of Almaty, reading out the clauses of the Agreement, commented on the statement of RSE "State expertise" on the free integration into the portal, where it states that it is necessary to pay a certain amount for technical support and consulting services during the registration at the portal. "Then about what free services are we talking, what is the amount of payment, and what services are provided within the portal. The provisions of the agreement also contadict to the legislation in terms of provision of data about the reports to the operator", - they said.

Since the creation of information systems will take time, in addition to costs, the private expert organizations proposed to introduce a transition period until the Single portal will be created with the Chamber of Experts, and provide the ability to use the database at the portal of RSE "State expertise" is free. They also requested that all documentation on comprehensive expertise should be carried out on paper. To what the State Expertise said no. According to them, the work is done on the principle of "one window" and solely with the use of information systems, the expert opinion are issued in an electronic format. Hard copy documents are accepted only in those cases where there are no construction components.

Meanwhile, according to the deputy chairman of NCE, perhaps it is time to make adjustments to the existing RLAs, as the Chamber has already established expert organizations. "Perhaps, the integration with the portal of RSE is not needed because the activities of private owners and RSE are completely different. RSE has become the operator of the portal at the request of the authorized state body to create a portal for private expert organizations. The portal was created on the basis of RSE, it functions and simplifies the work. Funding is necessary for the operation of the portal, data processing, technical equipment, the fee is paid only to cover the maintenance of the portal", - said Yuliya Yakupbaeva.

In turn, Karim Tusupbekov, representative of the National Association of the construction industry of Kazakhstan, noted that the concept "e-portal" is not regulated at the legislative level, and the general provisions are not regulated, which are related to the implementation of the portal. Portal exists now as an add-on for the sake of providing a single window for two additional examinations - environmental and sanitary-epidemiological.

Summing up the meeting, the Deputy Chairman of NCE Y. Yakupbaeva said that this issue will be discussed on March 10 of this year at a meeting of the Council on the protection of the rights of entrepreneurs NCE RK.

The professional association of accredited expert organizations "Chamber of expert organizations" operates in full mode, it has its own office in the city of Astana on 8, Amman street, BC "Milano", phone: +7 (7172) 24-94-07, there is a web-site: saraptama.kz, e-mail: info@saraptama.kz. It  has the necessary forms and other printed materials.

The members of the Board of the Chamber are representatives of ALE "National Association of the construction industry of Kazakhstan", " Association of builders of Kazakhstan", "National Association of designers of Kazakhstan". A relevant request has been sent to the Committee for Construction, Housing and Land Management of MNE of RK regarding the appointment of candidates for the Board of the Chamber of expert organizations.

The founders of the Chamber, according to the law, the three organizations are: LLP "ARCHITECTSEKSPERTIZA.KZ", LLP "PROEKTEKSPERTIZAASTANA.KZ", LLP "STROYARHEKSPERTIZA.KZ".