The present government is not to blame for the problems in Kazakhstan.  We need to tectonically change the structure of state governance and economic administration, says Doctor of Physics and Math, Ex-Minister of Transportation and Communications, Mr. Serik Burkitbayev.

Nazarbayev’s Bet On Angry Young Men Was Right

— Mr. Burkitbayev, you used to hold rather serious posts – KazMunayGas, Samgau and Kazakhtelecom. What is your assessment of the Government of the New Kazakhstan?

— I do not envy the present Cabinet of Ministers.  My generation lived in the 90-s, the time of changes.  I must tell you, that President Nazarbayev’s bet on us, Young Angry Men, was the right choice.  We justified expectations. Once upon a time, President asked me a question whether I knew the reason why I was not a billionaire. I said that, probably, because of my poor performance, as a private businessman. He said “NO” and added that the reason was that I was a Kazakh national. He said that if myself or anyone else from the community of Angry Young Men made a billionaire, then, one day, I would have a night dream, in which a spirit of one of my ancient ancestors, Aruakhs, would come to talk to me and tell me, that I must become the leader of the country. That was the problem, as it turns out.  In fact, then, neither myself, nor the rest of us, understood the hidden message. It was then, that he was conceiving plans to get rid of Angry Young Men and build-up a new pack – graduates of the Bolashak Program (program, by which Kazakhstan youth studied abroad). He had plans to make androids out of those Bolashak students.  He wanted to give them dosed portions of electric charge, to keep them obedient.  Later, we understood, why we all got “brushed and swept” in different ways.

Today, Kazakhstan is experiencing another period of tectonic shifts.  We are building the New Kazakhstan.   And things happening today are not clear, at all.  We cannot accuse all public servants.  Today, the role of a Minister is vague.  For example, we no longer have the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, but we have something called Ministry for Some Sort of Innovation and Some Technology Development…What does that Ministry supervise and regulate?  I remember how we worked back in the 90-s.  We spent hundreds of sleepless nights in the office thinking what particular air-vessel would get fuel in the morning – those were the times, when we all suffered from fuel shortages.  Today’s structure of the Ministry is wrong.  It must be changed.  Given that – let us not evaluate a Minister or the Premier and make conclusions why they are failing. 

The core of the problem is in the fact that we have a distorted state governance structure.  What does an industry Minister regulate? Especially, when a national company belongs with the Samruk-Kazyna Holding.  What is that Minister’s scope of power and responsibility? In the late 90-s, they changed the title of the Ministry for three times, they re-shuffled its directorates.  All documents about that were eliminated.  That is from where our present and past privatizations root out.  Let us explore the core of the problem.  All our provinces receive financial support from Treasury.  The same happened to our national companies.  For example, all cellular telecom operators belong to Kaztelecom.  Or, all petroleum projects belong to KazMunayGas.  Those national companies own interests in telecom and petroleum operators.  That is how all things were made topsy-turvy.

We must change our state governance sector.  Responsibility for the development and functioning of industries must rest with appropriate Ministries.  Take a look at those Ministries – they have unclear titles and we do not understand what they deal with.  We need to do one thing, to which I personally contributed my efforts – we need to restore the Ministry of Transportation Infrastructure.  That title covers a range that is broader than just rail and motor-vehicle roads and telecom.  In the past, I put forward that suggestion – to give to that Ministry all things pertaining to transportation.  How come that KazMunayGas, the company producing 3-5% of total oil volume owns transportation infrastructure and decides, whom to give or not the access to the pipeline, be it oil or gas pipe? All logistical companies, pipelines, energy, telecom, motor-vehicle and rail roads, as well as water pipelines must fall under auspices of the Ministry of the Transportation Infrastructure.  But we no longer have the ministry for transportation, we have something called Ministry of Industry and Some Kind of Development.

Local Governments are the present-day miracle wizards – they create whole directorates for happiness and have already reached the level of senile atrophy! Why do they all deviate from their core assignment? Our present Government should be pitied, because they are trying to do something under present conditions.  Whether they succeed or fail, is another question.  For example, we created the Ministry of Aerospace Industry, but we do not have such an industry!  This Ministry needs to be disbanded and its resources must be directed to the Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources sectors!

They Did Not Give Me Assess To KazMunayGas Financial Statements

—  You only spent three months in the office of the KazMunayGas CEO.  In an interview, you once said that after three months you got horrified with the real order of things in the company … What was it, that struck you there?

— Very often they criticize me, as follows – they say I was an alien and an outsider in the petroleum industry, but I came and started acting like someone smartest.  I object to that.  My PhD was ascertained in the Moscow Physical Engineering Institute and my doctorate research was dedicated to oil and gas. I dealt with the oil and gas problematics since 80-s.  After graduation, I worked in Guriyev, present Atyrau in the Chemistry, Petroleum and Natural Salts Research Institute.  Starting from 1994, my research was dedicated to petroleum.  Also, I founded and commissioned the Kazakh Institute of Oil and Gas and was its CEO for almost 10 years.  As an executive officer, I supervised petroleum industry.  So, let us not “talk bollocks” and insist I was a smart-ass alien. 

Not at all did I have to spend the time diving into the industry specifics.  I always was head over hills inside petroleum.  There was just one nuance missing – they never gave me access to the KazMunayGas financial statements. BASTA!

I had a 20-minute conversation with the CFO and things became clear.  I asked him a question about what had happened and why we had less 20 billions.  The company got ripped off.

Those losses were covered with profits from Chevron, Karachaganak and Kazgermunay projects, as well as other projects, in which the national company held interests.  They were embezzled, although they were supposed to go to the National Fund.  You see?

I Do Not Know Why They Put Me in Jail

— On 2 September 2008, you were accused of major fraud and espionage in favor of three countries.  Your case was reviewed by the Military Court in the closed regime.  You were sentenced to 6 years in a minimum-security detention facility, although the prosecution insisted on more robust sentence.  In 2012, you were paroled.  Do you intend to seek cancellation of that sentence and rehabilitation?

— Of course, I do! But they are not giving me access to my criminal investigation dossier, because it was classified.  I do not even know, why they put me in jail. I still do not have a copy of the court verdict. Through my lawyer, I approached appropriate bodies for several times, but with no result, although by law they were supposed to make that copy available to myself. 

The Military Court process had three tiers of the regime of secrecy.  Our of all charges, only one eventually was put into the foundation of the sentence – that was the de-privatization of Kazteleradio national company, which company … was returned into the jurisdiction and auspices of state. That was my Corpus Delicti! Contrary to that, they were supposed to award me with a state Order!  The prosecution claimed that Kazteleradio, which owned hundreds of towers, including the famous Koktobe in Almaty, thousands of land allotments and equipment was re-bought for some miserable sums.  That is beyond understanding!  If somebody ever publishes the story of that investigation, a half of the country will die laughing, others – from existential shock.  Eventually, they sentenced me to 6 years, although the “logic” of investigators was to put me in jail for 25 years. 

As for espionage and selling of state secrets:  back in the times, when I was a scientific researcher, I won the first prize in an international nuclear disarmament competition and created the best system of satellite television Nursat and the Katelco digital television system.  The investigators justified my espionage charges with the fact that the television signal coding standard was not compatible with those of the neighboring countries.  I selected that incompatible standard to protect our information space from neighboring broadcasting systems.    Today that is an obvious thing, but then I was put in jail and my standard got replaced with the one compatible with our big neighbors.  That is why, today, we are absolutely exposed.

The above is not all.  One of the charges was that I acted to the detriment of our national pride – the Kazsat satellite, in favor of an international satellite system.  When the Government summoned a meeting to discuss the procurement of the Kazsat satellite, I openly said that Kazsat was a “drum” to be bought for the price of a Mercedes and that the satellite would not work.  That was one big scandal.  They would not listen.  And then, they made me a spy.   While I was doing the time, Kazsat-1 fell down both physically, and into oblivion.  That, probably, resulted in the necessity to drop treason charges.

Do Not Want To See Shabdarbayev and Happy for Matayevs

— Do you still hold the grudge about those who put you jail.  In the times of your conviction, Amangeldy Shabdarbayev was in charge of National Security. 

— I never saw him in person.  Probably, he has some remains of consciousness.  He never showed up, never met with me and never cared to explore what was happening to me.

— Would you like to talk to him now?

— No, I do not want to talk to him. What for? Let him be ashamed.

I am very happy for Seitkazy and Aset Matayevs.  They cancelled their sentence and justice was exercised.  I also want to rehabilitate my good name.

— Will you, in case of rehabilitation, demand compensation of material and moral damage?

— Have not thought about it. My imperative goal now is to cancel my verdict.  Now, I am receiving fragments of information indicating at intention of those investigators to put me in detention for 25 years.  They intimidated lawyers and my family.  They wanted to charge me with Treason, but called it off, for lack of Corpus Delicti.