The contract between the LLP "Parking Space of Astana" and the city akimat must be terminated. This ruling was issued by the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan, as reported by the business information center Kapital.kz, citing the press service of the Agency for Protection and Development of Competition.
"The Supreme Court upheld the findings of the Department of the Agency for Protection and Development of Competition for the city of Astana (DAPRCK) regarding the legality of involving LLP 'Parking Space of Astana' as a partner in the framework of the PPP project for managing the capital's parking space," the antimonopoly agency reported.
The Agency reminded that an investigation by DAPRCK to verify the legality of selecting a private partner was conducted in 2023.
"As a result, it was determined that the Department of Transport and Road Infrastructure Development of Astana unlawfully granted advantages to the private partner – LLP 'Parking Space of Astana'. The akimat of Astana signed a public-private partnership agreement with this LLP in 2018 for the implementation of the project 'Creation, operation, and management of paid parking spaces in Astana'. The results of the investigation showed that during the competition, the Department established qualification requirements that limited other potential participants," the DAPRCK information states.
Furthermore, the PPP contract with the private partner was signed before it was approved by the city's maslikhat, which contradicts the norms of legislation on public-private partnerships, the agency added.
The results of the investigation were contested by the parties in court. After judicial proceedings, the Judicial Panel for Administrative Cases of the Supreme Court confirmed the legality of the antimonopoly investigation's results. In this regard, the antimonopoly authority issued a directive to the Department to take measures to terminate the PPP contract with LLP 'Parking Space of Astana', the Agency reported.
It should be noted that in August 2022, it was reported that nearly 1,700 paid parking spaces were dismantled in the capital.