The role of the veterinary laboratory in the national system: an interview with the General Director

When it comes to veterinary services, most people still perceive them as a narrow sectoral function associated exclusively with agriculture and animals. In practice, however, the veterinary laboratory system is one of the key elements of national security, directly affecting public health, the stability of the food market, as well as the country’s export and import potential.

Highly dangerous diseases, epizootics, contaminated product batches, and cross-border threats are not abstract risks, but real scenarios the state faces on a regular basis. Under such conditions, the role of laboratory diagnostics becomes critical: it is precisely diagnostics that makes it possible to identify threats at an early stage and prevent large-scale consequences.

In Kazakhstan, this function is performed by the Republican Veterinary Laboratory (RSE on the Right of Economic Management) — the largest state-run, geographically distributed network of veterinary laboratories operating at the intersection of science, control, and practical safety. Under the leadership of General Director Temirkhan Yelshibayev, the existing infrastructure of the enterprise has been systematically strengthened and unified through the introduction of new business processes and management approaches, which has increased its controllability and level of constant readiness across the entire country.

This article is not about technology. It is about people and processes that often remain out of sight, yet it is they who determine food safety, market stability, and public health. After all, we are what we consume — and the future of a healthy generation directly depends on the quality of livestock products.

RVL: A Scale Rarely Visible from the Outside

The Republican Veterinary Laboratory is not a single laboratory and not a single city. It is a branched system covering the entire country: a central office, regional and provincial branches, and district units working in constant cooperation with veterinary services, agricultural enterprises, and private subsidiary farms.

In practice, RVL serves as the primary filter of laboratory control, annually processing a vast volume of diagnostic studies for especially dangerous animal diseases, monitoring the safety of products of animal origin, and controlling risks associated with the cross-border movement of raw materials and goods.

The system employs hundreds of specialists — professionals who are required not only to have strong qualifications, but also high discipline, precision, and readiness to work under conditions of increased responsibility. An error in laboratory diagnostics is not an internal malfunction; it is a potential threat to national security.

We work with risks that do not allow for delays: either decisions are made in a timely and accurate manner, or the consequences become systemic,

notes Temirkhan Yelshibayev, General Director of the Republican Veterinary Laboratory.

At the same time, the workload on the system is constantly increasing. The volume of research is growing, diagnostic methods are becoming more complex, and requirements from international organizations are becoming stricter. Today, RVL is a structure that must simultaneously comply with scientific standards, state regulations, and real market conditions.

In this context, the issue of management — of people, processes, and resources — ceases to be auxiliary. It becomes a fundamental condition for the sustainability of the entire system.

The System in Numbers: A Nationwide Laboratory Network

To understand the true scale of RVL, it is enough to look at the figures. Today, it is one of the largest and most geographically distributed laboratory systems in the veterinary sector of the country.

More than 2,500 specialists of various profiles work within the structure of the Republican Veterinary Laboratory, ensuring the continuous operation of laboratories throughout the republic.

The laboratory network includes 188 laboratory facilities, including:

• 17 regional and provincial branches,
• 149 district and zonal laboratories,
• 22 sampling points for biological and pathological material.

This scale means one thing: any error, delay, or disruption affects not locally, but systemically — at the level of regions, industries, and foreign economic relations. That is why it is critically important for RVL that every link in the chain — from a district laboratory to the central office — operates synchronously and according to unified standards.

With hundreds of laboratories and thousands of employees, management cannot rely on intuition — a systematically built model covering methodologies, processes, and human resources is required,

Temirkhan Yelshibayev emphasizes.

It is precisely this scale that transforms RVL from a conventional state enterprise into an infrastructure element without which it is impossible to speak about stable veterinary and food security of the country.

What Lies Behind RVL’s Work: Daily Responsibility, Not Formal Inspections

The work of the Republican Veterinary Laboratory is rarely visible, yet it forms the foundation for decision-making in agriculture, the food industry, and export-import operations. This is not about one-time inspections — it is about continuous risk control.

RVL conducts laboratory studies daily in key areas of veterinary safety: diagnostics of infectious and especially dangerous animal diseases, control of the safety of products of animal origin, monitoring of the epizootic situation, and support of foreign trade shipments.

Samples of meat, milk, feed, biomaterial, and products intended for export and import pass through the laboratories. The accuracy of results determines not only the fate of a specific batch, but also the country’s reputation in international markets.

Our field does not allow working with assumptions — the accuracy of data directly determines the level of sectoral risks,

emphasizes Temirkhan Yelshibayev.

At the same time, laboratories operate under different conditions — from large regional branches to district-level facilities. Workload levels, number of studies, and staff composition may vary, but quality and deadline requirements remain uniformly standardized for everyone.

That is why RVL needs not just specialists and equipment, but a unified, manageable system in which every employee understands their role, schedule, area of responsibility, and works within clearly defined standards.

Managing People at a National Scale: Where Manual Control Ends

When thousands of employees and nearly two hundred divisions operate within a system, classical management approaches stop working. It is impossible to keep everything in mind, rely on verbal agreements, or manual reports — the cost of error is too high.

For RVL, the key challenge has never been the absence of regulations, but ensuring their execution across the entire country. Employees work in different regions, at different paces, with different workloads, yet requirements for discipline, attendance, and schedule compliance are uniform for all.

When a system is stretched across the entire country, managing ‘by sight’ becomes impossible — unified and transparent rules are needed for everyone,

says Temirkhan Yelshibayev.

The specifics of laboratory work create additional complexity. It is not enough simply to show up for work — specialists must be present strictly at a certain time to ensure continuity of research, sample intake, and compliance with deadlines. Any delay or absence of a single specialist can affect the entire chain.

Manual control — through calls, messages, and reports — places an additional burden on managers and administrative staff. Instead of managing processes, they are forced to constantly verify the fact of presence.

At this stage, it became obvious within RVL that for the sustainable operation of such a structure, digital tools were necessary — tools that allow a transition from “manual” control to management based on objective data.

Digital Support: Automation as Part of Mature Management

The transition to digital tools at RVL was neither abrupt nor forced. It was a logical step in the development of an already established system where regulations and requirements had long existed, but their execution at a nationwide scale required more precise and unified mechanisms.

Automation was viewed not as a way to tighten control, but as a tool to relieve the management vertical and shift to working with facts rather than assumptions. Attendance tracking, schedule compliance, and transparency of working hours became part of a single digital framework.

Today, RVL uses modern automation tools, including Clockster — as a solution for attendance tracking and basic personnel discipline. The system has been seamlessly integrated into the daily work of laboratories and administrative units, without changing the essence of processes, but making them more predictable.

The key task was to ensure that the implemented tool did not destabilize the existing system, but strengthened it through transparent and unified work rules,

notes Temirkhan Yelshibayev.

Digital attendance tracking enabled management to see the overall picture across divisions, while line managers could respond to deviations faster without wasting time on clarifications and manual checks. For employees, the rules became clearer and the same for everyone — regardless of region or level of division.

With dozens of laboratories and hundreds of employees, effective management is possible only on the basis of systemic processes, not manual control,

emphasizes the General Director of RVL.

It is important to note that RVL, relying on its own internal capabilities, expanded the functionality of its existing system by integrating two independent solutions — Clockster and 1C. This made it possible to automate the transfer of attendance and working time data into accounting and HR systems.

In addition, additional tools were created for personnel working under civil law contracts. Data on days worked and monthly amounts are now exported from Clockster to 1C for the automatic generation of Acts of Completed Work. This simplified payroll calculations and reduced the workload on administrative units — data is synchronized without manual uploads or duplication.

In this case, automation became not an end in itself, but an infrastructure element that supports the sustainability of the entire system and reduces dependence on the human factor.

Conclusion: When Scale Requires Systematic Approach

The Republican Veterinary Laboratory is not just a state enterprise and not merely a set of regional laboratories. It is one of the country’s key infrastructures, upon which veterinary and food safety, the stability of the agricultural sector, and trust in Kazakhstani products under the “Made in KZ” brand in international markets directly depend.

Today, more than 2,500 employees work within the RVL system across the country — specialists who perform critically important work daily under conditions of high responsibility and strict regulations. Managing such a scale is impossible without clear processes, unified rules, and transparent mechanisms that allow the system to function stably — regardless of region, workload, or external factors.

That is why automation in such organizations ceases to be a matter of convenience and becomes a necessity. It does not replace managerial decisions or professional expertise, but creates the very foundation without which it is impossible to ensure order, discipline, and predictability at a nationwide level. At RVL, digital tools are organically embedded into the existing management logic and help maintain system stability in daily operations.

For the Clockster team, cooperation with RVL is a great responsibility and an honor. We are grateful for the trust and the opportunity to be part of an infrastructure that plays such an important role for the state and society. Projects like this clearly demonstrate that systematic management and modern tools are not about technology for the sake of technology, but about sustainability, security, and long-term development.