Industry associations ask NCE to check the validity of issued certificates of origin

At the regular meeting of the Council on combating corruption and the shadow economy under NCE RK "Atameken" was considered the issue of “CT-KZ” certificates of origin, which worries today many domestic producers.

NCE analyzed the issued certificates. According to Deputy Director of the Department of procurement and local content NCE RK Elmira Akshalova currently 139 companies applied for conduction of internal audits for verification of issued “CT-KZ” certificates, 60 companies have been tested. A positive expert opinion was issued for 8 enterprises, which possess “CT-KZ” certificates. We revoke certificates of 32 companies, among them: the order of NCE RK - 7; 20- were voluntarily withdrawn by the manufacturers  (32 certificates); 8 certificates were canceled on the basis of prescriptions of CTRM -. 61 more companies were audited, the reports are being compiled now.

"From the above mentioned statistic figures shows that the lion's share of certificates is voluntarily withdrawn by the manufacturers, as they can’t confirm the local origin of the goods", - said Akshalova.

She also reported that the domestic producers and associations have expressed doubts about the reliability of the calculation of shares of local content (SLC) and ask the National Chamber to check the validity of the issuance of certificates of origin. Thus, the National Chamber has addressed the Association of Furniture and Woodworking Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan regarding the inspection of issued certificates to LLP "Tunach". The Association points out several problems that have arisen from domestic producers of furniture products: manufacturers, which are not actually producers, win the tenders by providing “ST-KZ” certificates; the company won a tender for the supply of goods for the quasi-public sector, supply of imported goods under the cover of the "ST-KZ" certificate. According to the Association, the office furniture of LLP "Tunach" was not made in the Republic of Kazakhstan, and was imported from the Republic of Turkey. Issued "ST-KZ" certificates are invalid, as the share of local content in them is invalid. In the current period, NCE analyzes the documents submitted to obtain a certificate by LLP "Tunach", by the results of the internal audit NCE will notify the Association of its decision.

The Association cable factories of Kazakhstan addressed to the National Chamber in the interest of LLP "KazElektroMash" regarding the revocation of certificates issued to LLP "PKF Continent Co. Ltd". At the request of the Association on 9^th of July 2014 the branch of JSC "Kazakhtelecom" - Directorate "Telecom Complect" held an open tender for long-term purchases of cables and wires and fiber-optic cable among domestic producers. LLP "PKF Continent Co. Ltd" (Atyrau) was recognized as the winner. From the presented information at the time of the tender LLP "PKF Continent Co. Ltd" did not have its own production of cable products, the carried out audit showed that there is no appropriate equipment at the territory of the plant, there is no engineering network and the construction of the plant is not finished. Thus, the Association of cable factories believes that the issued “CT-KZ”certificate to LLP "PKF Continent Co. Ltd" is illegal.

"Based on the above examples, the National Chamber is working on revocation of issued "ST-KZ” certificates on the basis of acts of inspections in case of violation of established procedures", - said Akshalova.

It should be noted that under the current system of "ST-KZ"certification, an expert organization identifies the country of origin of goods based on defined criteria of sufficient processing. In the end the authorized body is responsible directly for the issued certificate, as it puts its stamp and signature, ensuring the accuracy of the information, based on the expert opinion of other organizations that are not subject to annual monitoring by the public agency as it is set only for the issuing authority.

"Based on an analysis of work done for the examination of the origin of goods, NCE RK states that it receives a lot of complaints about the unreliability of the issued certificates, in particular, “CT-KZ” certificates. Based on the monitoring, we note that often acts-of inspections are drawn up in violation of the legislation on the origin of the goods, the authorized organization that issued the certificate, is forced to carry out checks on the proper execution of acts. We believe that strict control of suppliers and organizers of procurements, which provide "ST-KZ" certificates, conducted by the National Chamber, will help to overcome corruption in this sphere", - said the deputy director of the Department of procurement and local content.

According to her, to solve the existing problems in the system of origin, NCE proposes to introduce an industrial certificate - a new approach for the certification of Kazakhstani producers, indicating the production facilities. "The effectiveness of industrial certificates in procurement will provide covert support to domestic producers and will promptly identify potential suppliers that do not meet the qualification requirements", - added Akshalova.