пятница, 4 февраля 2011 г.

Turkmen Monopoly. President and his relatives end up owning all GSM operators in the country and reach their hands to future contracts.

Turkmen Monopoly. President and his relatives end up owning all GSM operators in the country and reach their hands to future contracts.

 

At meeting of Cabinet of Ministers today president of Turkmenistan ordered to establish a new directorate under the municipality of Ashgabat that would monitor all construction works, inspect sites and (key function!) will act as tender/bidding committee to review and accept all future construction projects. Field of construction is one of most expensive top point in state budget and it creates immense opportunities for all sorts of ministers, directors and heads of different organizations to launder money and receive bribes. According to some confidential talks with people involved in construction from both sides: government and companies, the amount of "net bribe" varies around 30-35% of the contract amount, and by "net bribe" they mean the money that directly goes to those who are authorized to sign the contract on government's behalf, and considering the authoritarian style of ruling it is not hard to find out that all money goes to the "highly esteemed" president. According to those sources except the "net bribe", there are many minor bribes or services, for example Bouygues French company had to reconstruct a network of shops in former VDNH district that belong to one of the Deputy Chairman of Cabinet of Minister's at company's own cost. Or most of Turkish companies are "kindly suggested" (an offer they can not refuse) to lease truck and some construction equipment from certain people, who are close relatives of president. The fact that some of president's relatives own up to 150 construction equipments (dump trucks, mixer trucks, haulers, bulldozers, excavator and etc.) is widely known among local population, and construction companies are obliged to use their equipment and pay them for the leasing. Well, some companies are also made to buy certain building materials from local entrepreneurs, who "accidentally" happen to be president's relatives too. So for the companies it gets very hard to maintain good standards and pay off all "bills"; one particular man I talked to made an example, that if the contract costs 10 million dollars, then the building itself could be built for 2 - 2,5 millions, since 70-90% of contract price goes to maintaining good ties with the mighty government.

At the same meeting president mentioned that cell communication should be improved and called the minister in charge to invite several foreign GSM operators. Then president continues that according to researches made there would be three GSM operators in Turkmenistan. There was a rumor before that Russian MTS would be nationalized and then sold to Belgian company ENEX, which is closely related to president's daughter according to some rumors. Plus, Chinese Huawei that supplied telecommunication equipment before will also enter Turkmenistan as an operator. All foreign companies will be joint Turkmen, and according to president's speech government's share in those companies should not be less that 50%. The head of state ordered to reduce government's share in state owned (now only cell operator) Altyn Asyr and reform it into private company. Thus another rumor that Altyn Asyr will be bought by one of president's relatives (supposedly by another daughter) also proved true. All those words mean that president's family now owns all GSM operators in Turkmenistan, and whatever illusion of choice they leave to citizens the money will go straight to their pockets. Maybe I should stop using a cell phone as sign of protest and way to avoid funding their comfortable living.

Around a month ago there was a leak from ministry of communication that the company to come instead of MTS would be called "Galkynysh". In Turkmen the word means "revival", and it really happened, the "dead" MTS will be revived by new Belgian-Turkmen "Galkynysh". At the end of the meeting I mentioned above president also said that the new company should be called something like "galkynysh", the thing I wondered about was how he managed not to blush and keep a straight face while saying that?

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