The video circulating on social networks about the “cabinet in the closet” of the head of the plant in Semey was filmed by the management of JSC “NC “Kazakhstan Engineering” on October 20, 2022 during a business trip and meeting with the staff of JSC “Semipalatinsk Machine-Building Plant”.

Since February of this year, by a court decision, a rehabilitation procedure has been applied to the plant in accordance with bankruptcy laws. The plant is managed by a rehabilitation manager and a meeting of creditors (more than 20 creditors).

In connection with the unprofitable activity of the enterprise, accounts payable of more than 3 billion tenge accumulated since 2015, a debt to workers was formed on wages that had not been paid for 5 months, which caused social discontent among the staff of SMZ JSC. The company's staff consists of 100 people, half of which are production personnel. The plant produces manhole covers for gondola cars.

In January, April, June of the current financial assistance was provided to pay wages to employees of the enterprise. Despite having a rehabilitation plan, the rehabilitation manager did not pay salaries to the employees. An additional 40 million tenge was allocated in October by Kazakhstan Engineering and the Akimat of the Abai region for wages to production personnel.

In 2014, the plant planned to implement the investment project “Creation of the assembly production of MAZ vehicles. The total amount of planned investments was 1,491 million tenge, of which a tranche in the amount of 672.29 million tenge was transferred. It was planned to use the project funds for the development of design and estimate documentation, the restoration of railway tracks, the acquisition of fixed assets for production, as well as for construction and installation work. At the same time, 76% of the funds allocated for the implementation of the MAZ investment project within the framework of the first tranche were spent on the construction of a new administrative block, despite the fact that there was an existing building of the ABK. Production has not been started.

The office of the former director, highlighted in the above video, is located in the administrative block built at the expense of these funds. It is obvious that the management of SMZ JSC allowed inexpedient spending of funds, directing them not to upgrade the production base for the operation of the plant, but to build a comfortable office for the management of the enterprise.

By decision of the creditors, an audit will begin on October 25, after which the materials will be sent to the Anti-Corruption Service.

Earlier, in the framework of a criminal case initiated by the DER in the East Kazakhstan region, the first deputy director of SMZ JSC Suleimenov K.R. sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment for embezzlement of budgetary funds on an especially large scale (more than 600 million tenge).

The debt on wages, taxes and utility bills is 743.7 million tenge.

From 2020 to 2022, despite its own debts of 26.5 billion tenge, Kazakhstan Engineering provided financial assistance to SMZ JSC to pay off wage arrears to employees.

On October 11, 2022, negotiations were held with members of the meeting of creditors of SMZ JSC, following which the meeting of creditors decided to audit the current financial and economic activities of SMZ JSC in order to monitor the implementation of the rehabilitation plan and prevent bankruptcy of the plant. The Creditors' Meeting will be assisted by the Internal Audit Service of Kazakhstan Engineering.

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JSC "Semipalatinsk Machine-Building Plant", founded in 1969, was one of the key machine-building plants of the Kazakh SSR and was engaged in the production of tracked vehicles and products for the railway industry.

In recent years, many competencies have been lost, new projects have not been developed, and the only products of the enterprise are hatch covers for gondola cars.

Problems in the activities of JSC "Semipalatinsk Machine-Building Plant" have been noted since 2014. Since 2015, the Company has recorded a constant increase in losses - the accumulated loss is about 1.9 billion tenge.

This year, we managed to secure orders for hatch covers for gondola cars worth 800 million tenge. The proceeds were supposed to cover the costs of remuneration of employees of the enterprise (about 100 people) - the wage fund is about 20 million tenge per month.

Since June of this year, Kazakhstan Engineering has been appealing to all responsible authorities, creditors, including judicial, local executive and law enforcement agencies, about the need to check the financial and economic activities of SMZ JSC for previous years that led to the current situation.