Banya tenders: how Nurzhan's contracts are decided in the steam

Nurzhan has a phrase for a deal done out of sight: buuda chechildi, “decided in the steam”. It comes from the city's banyas, the Russian bathhouses, and from the “banya brotherhoods” of refinery managers, officials and their friends who meet weekly at private baths on the dachas. The Times has spent four months looking at what the steam decides.

We examined 64 contracts awarded by the Nurzhan city administration in 2019 and 2020 for road repairs, heating mains, school roofs and street lighting, worth together about 210 million som. In 41 of them only one bid was received. In 23, the winner was one of six companies whose owners or directors are members of the same two bathing circles, according to five people who attend them.

Before the envelopes

Three contractors who have bid for city work, and who asked not to be named, said the winner of a large tender is usually known in the city before the bids are opened. “You hear on Thursday who will win on Monday,” one said. “If you are not in the room on Thursday, you do not bid on Monday.”

The Times has seen the published tender notices and award decisions, but not the minutes of any evaluation committee, which are not public.

“A tradition, not a crime”

The city administration said every contract had been awarded “in accordance with the procurement rules”, that single-bid tenders were “common for specialised works”, and that city officials' leisure was “their private affair”. One member of a bathing circle, a refinery manager, laughed when asked about it. “The banya is a tradition, not a crime,” he said. “In the steam everyone is equal. Nobody has pockets.”