According to legend, the Samruk bird regularly laid golden eggs, thereby bringing prosperity to all who lived under the shade of the Bayterek tree. However, contrary to this idea, many economists believe that the national holding company "Samruk-Kazyna" has not become the bird that lays golden eggs for the economy of Kazakhstan. For 10 consecutive years, "Samruk-Kazyna" has been transforming, but how successful is this process and will it come to an end? And in general, what needs to be done for the rich subsoil of Kazakhstan to truly become a national treasure? This was asked by “The Voice of the People” to both independent experts and the national managing holding itself.
10 years of transformation: brief results
Established in 2008, the National Holding Company "Samruk-Kazyna" launched a transformation program in 2014. It was promised that as part of this program, among other things, the number of top managers in the group of companies would be reduced by half, and the number of companies would also be halved.
On the latter, it must be acknowledged, "Samruk-Kazyna" has succeeded over the past 10 years. If in 2014 there were 600 various subsidiaries and affiliates of the Fund, by the end of autumn 2024 there will be 326.
However, the reduction of top managers is not happening at such a rapid pace. In an official response to a request from the editorial office, "Samruk-Kazyna" reported that in 2016 there were 3,373 managers in the group of companies (why the Fund did not provide information for 2014 and 2015 is unknown; we requested statistics for those years as well – ed. note), and by 2024 the number of top managers has decreased by only 694 units or 25% - to 2,679.
At the same time, the main goal of the transformation of "Samruk-Kazyna" was declared to be turning "Samruk-Kazyna" into an investment company that meets all international criteria.
Moreover, no year in recent times has passed without criticism of Kazakhstan's main holding from the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has called "Samruk-Kazyna" ineffective, tasked it with reducing administrative costs, bringing order to procurement, learning effective work from Western managers, and even suggested closing the National Welfare Fund if it cannot cope with its problems.
So far, "Samruk-Kazyna" has not been closed.
And, as some economists are convinced, the delay in this matter only exacerbates the problems.
Recall that earlier in the studio of "The Voice of the People", economist Kairbek Arystanbekov raised the issue of budgeting for "Samruk-Kazyna". As the expert noted, the amount of money in the Fund even exceeds the annual budget of the Republic of Kazakhstan, but it is distributed without the participation of the parliament, which contradicts the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The National Fund assures that auditors control every tenge in one way or another.
"The funds allocated to the Fund from the Republican budget undergo mandatory approval at the level of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, including both chambers - the Mazhilis and the Senate. This means that the distribution of budget funds is under strict control of the deputies, who analyze projects and their compliance with state priorities. It is important to note that funding is allocated exclusively for projects that have strategic importance for the country and significant social impact, which further increases the responsibility for their implementation," assured us the Managing Director for Development and Privatization of JSC "NUH "FNB "Samruk-Kazyna" Saltanat Satzhan.
She emphasized that the funds allocated from the National Fund also undergo numerous approvals with both deputies and other political officials, up to the President of the country.
What, then, is the reason for the constant criticism of the Fund?
What is "Samruk" doing wrong?
According to economist and director of the public fund "Center for Analysis of Public Problems" Meruert Makhmutova, the problem lies not in the transformation of "Samruk-Kazyna" or in some external conditions that hinder the Fund's work, but in the Fund itself.
"To improve our "Samruk", foreign transformers, consultants, and so on are being attracted. But in reality, this was from the very beginning a completely unnecessary structure, created primarily to occupy numerous relatives of high-ranking officials. And the cosmetic measures that are proposed and implemented will not fundamentally solve the issue. Because the entire management system of strategic enterprises in Kazakhstan needs to be changed," she is convinced.
As the economist explains, the main complaint of all critics of the Fund is the ineffective management of national companies. She cites the national carrier as an example.
"In the summer, from the speech of the chairman of the Accounts Committee Alikhan Smailov, we learned that "Kazakhstan Temir Zholy" has monstrous debts. But the question is - where was "Samruk-Kazyna" at that moment, which sits in the management of KTJ and knows perfectly well that the company subsidizes domestic passenger transportation at the expense of international transit, yet still got into unmanageable debts that it now simply cannot repay?" - questions Makhmutova.
In her opinion, it would be much more correct under current conditions to liquidate the Fund rather than transform "Samruk-Kazyna".
"In due time, when there was no "Samruk-Kazyna", national companies were managed by specialized ministries. They did not receive salaries for this activity, but at least knew what was needed for the supervised sector of the economy. I think we need to return to this tradition," says the economist.
Take wealth away from ministers
Director of the Applied Research Center Talap, economist Askar Kysykov believes that returning to the previous scheme of managing national companies will not solve anything.
"Each ministry closed its interests through the national company, accordingly, each national company performed a whole range of tasks that were not inherent to it, that is, it was essentially a tool for implementing sectoral policy. When "Samruk-Kazyna" was created, it was assumed that this would help to gather all assets in one place, and clear tasks would be set for national companies to increase efficiency and the final value of assets. But, as we see, this did not happen. And the fact that the holding itself, as well as its subsidiaries, perform many non-core tasks is the key problem of "Samruk-Kazyna," notes Askar Kysykov.
As the economist believes, the reason is the same - ministers previously entered the management of national companies directly, now - through the Board of Directors of "Samruk-Kazyna". But, as before, they do not view national companies as independent organizations whose task is to effectively manage entrusted resources, but as a kind of wallet through which other problems can be solved.
"To this day, many services of national companies are provided on non-market terms. For example - tariffs for transportation by KTJ, tariffs of Kazpost, gas, and so on. A private company would not operate like this under any conditions, because it is a direct loss of profit. According to expert estimates, the volume of cross-subsidization within the group of companies "Samruk-Kazyna" exceeds one trillion tenge. This is a very large amount," says Kysykov.
He reminds that this approach, on the one hand, is the reason for chronic underfunding of the budget, and on the other hand, reduces the efficiency of spending in general: how can one demand increased dividends from national companies if they cannot raise tariffs for their services due to the social component?
As the economist is convinced, for "Samruk" to start working effectively, it must stop being managed by ministers.
"I think the main task that should be set before "Samruk" is to increase the efficiency of corporate governance. Perhaps this will require changing the owner - there are quite a few examples. For example, our National Bank manages the National Fund, but there are already examples where National Fund shares are sold by the National Fund itself. I believe it would be logical to hand over Samruk to the management of the National Fund. In this case, "Samruk-Kazyna" would be managed by separate bodies, which include not officials, but international managers," expresses the opinion of Askar Kysykov.
At the same time, as the economist believes, there will be no increase in tariffs for gas, passenger transportation, parcel delivery, and other services of national companies, as the state can successfully subsidize all these tariffs itself with the money that national companies pay into the budget in the form of dividends. But then indeed all these processes will be strictly accounted for and checked by the parliament and public activists.