Kazakh MPs approve anti-corruption legislative amendments

By Trend

 MPs of Kazakhstan Parliament’s Mazhilis [lower house] have approved the bill "On amendments and additions to some legislative acts of Kazakhstan on combating corruption" in the first reading, Trend reports via the parliament.

According to the Chairman of the country’s Anti-Corruption Agency Marat Akhmetzhanov, while presenting amendments to the anti-corruption legislation at the plenary session of the Mazhilis, the bill introduces control over the compliance of expenses of public employees, persons equated to them, their spouses, and the income of these persons.

Besides, the bill establishes fiscal and career sanctions which will be applied only in case of significant discrepancies.

"So, if the amount of the discrepancy between expenses and incomes exceeds a thousand times the minimum calculated indicator, an administrative fine in the amount of 90 percent of the total discrepancies will be imposed on the public employee,” Akhmetzhanov explained.

“If the sum of the discrepancy between expenses and incomes exceeds the annual income of a public employee, then the employee will be subject to dismissal from the public service for negative reasons," he added.

The chairman also noted that in each case, the person will be given the opportunity to justify the legality of the expenses.

The above amendments are planned to be enforced from 2027, given the full coverage of the population with mandatory declaring, since in 2025 all citizens of the country will report on the amount of their incomes, and from 2026 the process of comparing their expenses with incomes will begin.

The second block of amendments is aimed at creating a system for protecting persons who report facts of corruption. In order to create a comprehensive system for the protection of persons who reported the facts of corruption, it has been proposed to:

1) establish that a person who has assisted in combating corruption cannot be disciplined, dismissed or transferred to another position without the recommendations of the conciliation commission;

2) classify information on the provision of assistance by a person in combating corruption as confidential information with the introduction of criminal liability for its disclosure;

3) introduce a set of amendments that eliminate the shortcomings of existing norms in order to eliminate legal gaps and improve existing mechanisms for the protection of persons participating in criminal proceedings.

The third set of amendments is aimed at eliminating legal gaps and conflicts that have arisen in law enforcement practice. So, documents of state bodies and organizations, subjects of the quasi-public sector that aren’t related to administrative documents (decisions of the Management Board, Board of Directors, minutes of meetings of governing, executive collegiate bodies, and others) will be subject to external analysis.

Besides, the acts provided for by part four of Article 189 and part four of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan, committed by a public employee or other person equated to him/her, have been proposed to be included in the list of corruption crimes.

To date, these types of acts haven’t been classified as corruption crimes and they don’t have such criminal legal consequences as for corruption crimes (life deprivation of the right to hold positions in the public service and the quasi-public sector and a ban on the application of parole).