Every year, the courts of Kazakhstan pass sentences on approximatelya thousand corruption cases. How exactly do officials steal money from Kazakhstanis?

The Anti-Corruption Agency informed the correspondent that from the beginning of 2023 to March 31, 2024, ineffective spending of budget funds in the amount of 53.8 billion tenge was prevented.

Including in the first quarter of 2024, Antikor employees, having carried out monitoring, prevented overpricing in tender documentation totaling 12.4 billion tenge (for the entire 2020 it was 22.8 billion tenge, for 2021 - 46.6 billion tenge, for 2022 - 29 billion tenge, for 2023 - 41.4 billion tenge).

In the first quarter of 2024, overstatements were most often detected for fuels and lubricants (23 percent), office supplies (19 percent), food products (6 percent) and rental premises (6 percent).

Now let’s look at the common schemes used by Kazakh corrupt officials.

Theft of funds through government procurement

Public procurement is a source of enrichment for many corrupt officials. Former Minister of Culture and SportsArystanbek Mukhamediulytogether with the director of one of the LLPs in the period from 2019 to 2020stole more than 1.5 billion budget tenge, allocated under concluded public procurement agreements for the implementation of the project "National photogrammetric 3D scanning of national sacred objects Kazakhstan and museum funds."

Ex-akim of SatpayevShapagat Aubakiralso made money from government procurement. The court found that the official, being the akim of the city,received a bribe in the amount of 10 million tengefrom an individual entrepreneur M., who carried out work on maintaining Satpayev's roads, for assisting in increasing the amount of the public procurement contract and its extension." Shapagat Aubakir was sentenced to three years in prison.

In Astana, the former head of the Olympic Sports Development DirectorateBagdat Daniyarov was convicted. The official was caught stealing budget funds on a large and especially large scale.

As follows from the court verdict, published in the court office, the ex-official asked his relative to register an individual entrepreneur. Afterwards, in violation of the rules, it was recognized as the winner of public procurement conducted by the Directorate for the Development of Sports in Olympic Sports. The head of the directorate concluded several agreements with the company on public procurement of rental services for four gyms, as well as office premises. Subsequently, the management transferred 6.4 million tenge to the company’s current account, which was then appropriated by the sports functionary.

Further, according to a similar scheme, five contracts were concluded for the purchase of gym rental services with another individual entrepreneur. As a result, the ex-official embezzled more than 46 million tenge. This time the company was registered in the name of the son-in-law of his subordinate - the manager of the public procurement directorate.

According to the executive director of the republican public association "Adildik Zholy", member of the public council Antikor Didar Smagulov, "the sphere of public procurement is one one of the most corruptin our country."

"Every fifth corruption crime is directly related to government procurement. The rest also indirectly affect this area, for example, receiving bribes is often associated with giving preference in government procurement,” said the director of the association.

Head of StateKassym-Jomart Tokayev also criticized the current public procurement system.

Bribes to inspectors

The scheme, in which inspectors receive money for ensuring that their audit does not reveal violations, is also very popular in Kazakhstan.

In the West Kazakhstan regionthe ex-head of a regional branch was sentenced to 10 years in prison National Center for Quality of Road AssetsZauyrbek Kypshakbaev.

In 2022, he was responsible for checking the Aksai-Shyngyrlau road and demanded 5 million tenge monthly from the work contractor for positive results. The entrepreneur paid for several months, and then, when she could not find the required amount, she filed an application with the National Security Committee.

Business patronage

The wording “general patronage” often appears in reports of identified facts of corruption.

In Shymkent, the deputy district akim and his accomplicesreceived 60 million tenge from an entrepreneur for patronagewhen performing work on the improvement of the metropolis within the framework of the concluded public procurement agreement. For this, as well as for the theft of budget funds in the amount of 28 million tenge allocated for the maintenance of cemeteries, zamakimErik Tlenshinreceived 11 years, his subordinate - 10 years, and the representative of the contracting organization who helped them - 3 years.

In Almaty, the ex-head of the Department of Emergency SituationsAlmat Zhanyspaevreceived 13 million tenge for general patronageof the entrepreneur. For this, the court sentenced the former official to five years in prison.

In the Abay region, the leaders of the Semey Ormany reserve were found guilty ofreceiving bribes from entrepreneurs on the system basisin the amount of 700 thousand to 13 million tenge “for issuing permits for sanitary cleaning and deforestation on the territory of the reserve, for the smooth signing of public procurement contracts, as well as general patronage,” the court said.

Accounting tricks

Accountants who have access to money from budgetary organizations sometimes cannot resist the temptation to transfer part of the funds to a personal account or the accounts of relatives, friends, and acquaintances.

In Aktobe, a modest school accountant illegally transferred huge sums to his account for 8 years, as a resultthe state suffered damage in the amount of 413.8 million tenge(914 thousand dollars). In just one year, he transferred to himself more than 200 million tenge, which amounted to 30 percent of the annual wage fund of the entire school.

The accountant received 7 years in prison.

"To eliminate corruption risks in the processes of planning and disbursement of budget funds, a pilot project to digitize the education budget has been launched in the Pavlodar, Akmola and Turkestan regions. It provides for the automation of the process of generating and submitting budget requests in order to eliminate the reasons for the theft of billions of tenge in the education sector. In case of a positive result of testing the information system, the project will be launched throughout the country," -commented in Antikornumerous cases of abuse by accountants of educational institutions.

The amount of bribes ranged from 2 thousand to 280 million tenge.

Source: Tengrinews.kz