Ministry of Defense dodges heating bills

Kazakh Ministry of Defense owes about $1.5 million to the company selling oil products for heating at military bases., Tengrinews.kz reports. Koldau, an enterprise responsible for utility deals at the Ministry of Defense, signed an agreement with UshOil Ltd on fuel supply in 2008, Stanislav Grebennikov, Adat Lex Group top manager and representative of oil-traders and fuel suppliers group said. Koldau owed about $1.5 million to UshOil Ltd in 2009. The Enterprise refused to pay the debt referring to a lack of funds. UshOil Ltd managers sent several letters to the Ministry, but the answer was the same: no money. The company approached Almaty Economic Court. The court has delivered a judgement to recover the debt in the amount of 189 19 219 tenge (about $1.5 million) and arrested the debtor's property. Military procuracy appealed against the court's ruling. It was insisting that the arrest was illegal because the enterprise's facilities are part defense-essential territory. Grebennikov said that UshOil Ltd was going to approach the Supreme Court with supervisory appeal. The pretrial investigation uncovered that the enterprise owed about 1.5 billion tenge (more than $10 million) to 20 organizations. By Irina Mikhailova