Kazak Housing Row
Angry residents claim that corrupt officials are allocating free apartments in newly-constructed blocks to their cronies instead of to the poor and needy.
Kazak Housing Row
Angry residents claim that corrupt officials are allocating free apartments in newly-constructed blocks to their cronies instead of to the poor and needy.
Allegations of corruption and nepotism are blighting Kazak president Nursultan Nazarbaev’s much-publicised new housing programme.
Towards the end of 2004, local authorities in the southern Jambyl region announced that two new apartment buildings had been completed ahead of schedule and were ready to be occupied by the poor and needy of the area.
However, local residents in the regional capital of Taraz claim that many of the “impoverished” people shown on state television showing their gratitude to politicians for giving them a place to live were in fact more than capable of renting or buying their own apartments - and had been pushed to the front of the housing queue by corrupt officials.
Aigul Moldabaeva, who lives in two rooms of a dormitory with her ten children, told IWPR that the people in desperate need of place in the new buildings had been overlooked.
“We have cold running water here but no other sign of civilisation,” she said. “This winter, there has been absolutely no heating and we have to cook our food outside as there’s no gas.
“Nevertheless, a city housing official described us as ‘well-off people’ and hinted that he wanted a bribe before he would consider us for the new housing,” she alleged.
Her neighbour Olga Kupriyanova, who shares a one-room dormitory compartment with four children, also complained about corruption, claiming, “An official told us directly that first we had to ‘thank him’ for being placed on a list of people entitled to housing!”
The local authorities freely admit that the new apartment buildings were being distributed to more than just the poorest people, with a city official telling the media that “employees of the regional and city [administration], the prosecutor’s office, courts, and also the financial police” had been given new accommodation.
The local newspaper Yuzhny Express criticised the authorities for their decision. “If we compare the ratio of people who really need housing, and employees of state organisations - mainly from the leadership - who are receiving apartments, the balance is clearly not in favour of the former,” one editorial read.
Rysty Akhmetova, one of the needy people in question, told IWPR that she had waited for years to receive state housing and was bitterly disappointed to miss out on a place in the new buildings.
“When I contacted the local housing department, they informed me without any shame that a judge from the regional court would receive an apartment instead of me. And that’s exactly what happened,” she said.
“But judges have one of the highest salaries in the country - surely they are capable of buying apartments themselves?”
Kuntubai Tansykbaev, head of the distribution of housing department for the local authorities, declined IWPR’s request for a list of those given apartments in the new buildings.
However, he told IWPR, “These two buildings are intended for the poor, and state workers have not been given keys to any of the apartments.”
But another local official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “What else can we do if important people call us from Astana and demand that we give preferential treatment to one of their own people?”
Local analysts estimate that nearly 30 per cent of the region’s population are in need of new accommodation. The current waiting list contains 924 names, the vast majority of which are in Taraz and are classed as “in need” through disability or poverty, while around 11 per cent are believed to be Second World War veterans.
The problem has grown in the years since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Since then, independent Kazakstan has struggled to match the level of construction that its people had been used to. In 2001, for example, there was no social housing constructed at all.
President Nazarbaev’s March 2004 announcement that a three-year housing programme would address these issues was welcomed at first. Under the new policy, all regions of the republic would construct new developments where some houses would be sold through a mortgage system and free communal apartments would be given to the poor.
More than three million US dollars from the national budget has been given to the Jambyl region alone, two thirds of which has already been spent on construction work. Priority has been given to the social housing, with the mortgage-only properties still to be built.
Local pro-democracy activist Grigory Ten told IWPR that the housing policy was designed as a vote-winner for Nazarbaev, who is preparing for presidential elections in late 2005 or early 2006.
“But it is not surprising that the president’s trump card in the election campaign – accessible housing for the people – is being played very badly in the regions,” he said. “Corruption and nepotism have long been an essential part of the work of Kazak officials.”
Gaziza Baituova is an IWPR contributor in Taraz.
