Financial Transparency Coalition

Kazakhstan should complete the reform of its criminal legislation in order to comply with international standards and strengthen integrity in the public administration, according to a new report by the Istanbul Anti-Corruption Action Plan (IAP).

The report commends Kazakh leaders for declaring that the fight against corruption is a top priority and for ratifying the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). Kazakhstan has also adopted an anti-corruption strategy for 2011-2015 and tasked the country’s Agency for Combating Economic and Corruption Crimes to co-ordinate its implementation. It has also taken important steps to improve business regulations in order to reduce opportunities for corruption.

However, the level of corruption remains very high, especially in the spending of public funds. To address these serious challenges, Kazakhstan should:

• Making greater use of research and analysis for monitoring the implementation its anti-corruption strategy;
• Ensure genuine involvement of civil society in anti-corruption policies and actions;
• Strengthen public sector integrity by, among other measures, preventing the politicisation  of the civil service and ensuring the independence of the judiciary and the supreme audit institution;
• Adopt an access to information law and remove criminal liability for libel;
• Eliminate loopholes in the public procurement legislation; and
• Bring Kazakhstan’s criminal legislation in line with the UNCAC, including the adoption of the law on responsibility of legal persons.

The full report and recommendations on Kazakhstan is available here.

The IAP is an initiative launched in 2003 to support anti-corruption reform efforts in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, as part of the OECD Working Group on Bribery outreach work in Eastern Europe and Central Asia under its regional initiative Anti-Corruption Network for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

For further information, you can contact Ms. Inese Gaika at the OECD’s Anti-Corruption Division at (33) 1 45 24 13 19 or anti-corruption.contact@oecd.org.

For more information on OECD’s work to fight corruption, visit www.oecd.org/daf/nocorruption.