Amendments to Order #299 of the Minister of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated April 1, 2015 "On Approval of the Rules to Conduct Comprehensive Departmental Examination of Feasibility Study and Design and Estimate Documentation Intended for Construction of New and Alteration (Reconstruction, Expansion, Technical Re-Equipment, Modernization and Capital Repair) of Existing Buildings and Structures and their Complexes, Engineering and Transport Communications, Regardless of Funding Sources" (hereinafter – the "Rules") have been made by Order #288 of the Minister of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan of June 28, 2016.
The amendments to the Rules are as follows:
General Provisions
Now the Rules, in addition to the established procedure for conducting comprehensive departmental examination of the feasibility study and the design and estimate documentation for a project by using the principle of "one-stop" service for construction of new and alteration (reconstruction, expansion, technical re-equipment, modernization and capital repair) of existing buildings and structures and their complexes, engineering preparation of the territory, landscaping, establish the procedure for the development and coordination of individual plans for a phased development and approval of design and estimate documentation for the construction of individual facilities that require special regulation and/or urban development regulation.
Earlier, the Rules did not specify precisely which authority has to conduct comprehensive departmental examination of projects (feasibility study and the design and estimate documentation), referred to the state monopoly.
Now, according to the amendments made, the national state enterprise having the right of economic jurisdiction - "State Departmental Examination of Projects” of the Committee for the Construction and Housing and Utilities Infrastructure of the Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, set up under Resolution #88 of the Government of Kazakhstan dated January 24, 1996 - carries out comprehensive departmental examination of projects (feasibility study and the design and estimate documentation), referred to the state monopoly.
Goals and purposes of comprehensive departmental examination of construction projects.
Goals of the comprehensive departmental examination of projects have been expanded.
If previously the goal was only to ensure design solutions for sustainable and safe operation of constructed facilities after their commissioning, now the goal is to analyze and assess the quality of projects by checking the design solutions for their conformity (non-conformity) with the terms of the source documents (materials, data) on design, as provided by the laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as for the compliance of design solutions and calculations with the town planning and technical regulations, rules and provisions of state and interstate regulatory documents.
Submission and acceptance of construction projects to conduct a comprehensive departmental examination.
In connection with the amendments made, the submitted construction project and the source documents have to be checked for their completeness and composition simultaneously by the state expert organization or one of the accredited expert organizations selected by the customer, as well as by sectoral examination organizations; previously, only an expert organization and/or a person who were submitted a project checked it for the completeness and composition.
The amendments cover the form of the contract to carry out a comprehensive departmental examination, as well as the procedure for its conclusion.
The contract has to be concluded through the Web portal and information systems in digital form (electronic contract), with the signing of the contract by the authorized representatives of the parties with their digital signatures. With this, the electronic contract to conduct a comprehensive departmental examination referred to the state monopoly, is public and is concluded by using standard patterns approved by the state expert organization in consultation with the agency. The signed contracts shall enter into force on the date of meeting the terms of payment for the comprehensive departmental examination, as provided in the contract.
Conducting a comprehensive departmental examination by using the principle of "one-stop" service.
Previously, all the documents presented for comprehensive departmental examination were sent for sectoral examination since the entry into force of the contract. Now such documents, as stated above, are checked by the sectoral examination organizations for their completeness and composition before the contract enters into force, starting from the moment of their receipt by the Web portal for the expert organization.
After checking the documents for their completeness and composition and after the conclusion of the contract, the expert work, including industry expertise, starts.
In the process of conducting a comprehensive departmental examination, the experts request from the customers and developers of the project the necessary materials and information within the set time limits and in the event of non-conformities they issue reasoned notes to further address them.
Termination of comprehensive departmental examination of projects.
This is the new section that appeared in the Rules according to the amendments, which describes the procedure for termination of the project examination at the customer's request.
In the event that the customer no longer needs to obtain the expert opinion on the project, as well as in case of reasonable changes in the design assignment, the source documents, materials, terms or requirements of the architectural and planning assignment, the project customer shall submit to an expert organization a formal statement asking to end the examination, with the enclosure of the documents confirming the validity of the decision.
The given request of the customer is registered in the information system, automatically generates, and as a result, the relevant notification is sent to all departments and units that engage in sectorial examination.
Upon receipt of such notification, the relevant authorized agencies and departments stop carrying out sectoral examination and send to the expert organization a report on the work performed.
On the basis of these reports, termination of the contract is executed, with the preparation of a statement of work performed. With this, if the request from the client is received at the final stage of examination, the contract shall not be subject to termination, and the expert organization, together with the sectoral examination bodies, shall perform their obligations under the contract.
The procedure for the development and coordination of individual phase-out development plans and coordination of design and estimate documentation for the construction of individual facilities that require special regulation and/or regulation of urban development.
This section is new and has appeared as a result of altering the Rules. For certain categories of construction facilities, an individual plan for the phase-out development and coordination of design and estimate documentation is developed.
These are the following facilities:
- Critical infrastructure facilities in connection with the aftermath of emergencies;
- Unique facilities;
- Facilities of high level of responsibility (Level One), with the duration of the construction of at least 36 months.
Assigning some facility to the construction projects, requiring special regulation and/or regulation of urban development, is carried out through the adoption by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan of a relevant resolution. After such resolution, the customer shall develop an individual plan that includes:
- Stages and terms of development of the design and estimate documentation and the obtaining of approvals (with indication of the coordinating organizations), with the time-table attached;
- The scope of the design and estimate documentation and the time limits for their submission for examination, with the attached schedule, agreed upon by the expert organization;
3) The timeframes for the stage-by-stage issue of local expert’s opinion on each stage;
4) The timeframes for the issue of the consolidated expert opinion;
5) The terms of construction and obtaining approvals, permits (with the indication of the coordinating organizations), with the attachment of the schedule;
6) Notice from the bodies exercising state architectural and building control, of the start of construction and installation works under the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Permissions and Notices" dated May 16, 2014;
7) Other activities at the discretion of the customer.
The individual plan is approved by the agency within 15 working days. The customer shall provide the documentation for a comprehensive departmental examination by stages, in accordance with the individual plan. With this, a number of stages must be no more than four, including the final stage. At each stage, the opinions of local experts are supplemented with the expert’s opinions on sectoral examination in part of ecological and sanitary-epidemiological safety, forming a complete set of documents.
Specifics of the procedure for submission and conducting of comprehensive departmental examination for the corrected design and estimate documentation for the facilities with the construction in progress.
This section was added due to the recent amendments to the Rules. Those design and estimate documentation earlier approved, which some alteration or amendments were reasonably made to, that affected the previous design solutions and the approved technical and economic performance indicators, are now subject to a new comprehensive departmental examination in the manner, as prescribed for the new projects under development. In the general explanatory note to the design and estimate documentation, to be corrected and submitted anew for the repeated examination, the following information must contain:
- Information about the actual volume of construction work performed;
- Amendments and alterations made to the previously approved design and estimate documentation with the giving of reasonable grounds.
The statement of technical inspection of the unaccomplished construction project must be attached to the general explanatory note.
Specifics of the procedure for expert review of the feasibility studies as part of the concession bids documents, submitted by the bidders during the bids to select the concessionaire
The given section was added to the Rules due to the amendments made.
As for feasibility studies, developed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan related to concessions, as part of the concession bids documents submitted by potential bidders of a two-stage bid to select the concessionaire for the construction of concession facilities, the comprehensive departmental examination is carried out, taking into account certain peculiarities.
If the potential bidder accepts the technical and economic parameters specified in the feasibility study, earlier developed by the organizer of the bids to select the concessionaire, and is given positive opinion by the panel of experts of the comprehensive departmental examination, the feasibility study as part of a concession bid documents of the potential bidder does not require passing the comprehensive departmental examination.
By Viktoria Chagai,
Lawyer at Artyushenko & Partners
15.09.2016
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