Almaty businessmen discuss problems of corruption

According to the Kazakh Agency for Civil Service Affairs and Anti-Corruption, 156 corruption-related crimes have been registered in Almaty city since the beginning of 2016.

It should be noted that the meeting was held within the framework of implementation of the National Plan "100 specific steps". Fight against corruption is highlighted in the 13th step of the National Plan.

"871 officials, including 11 officials of republican level, 53 officials of regional level, 103 officials of city and district levels, were held liable for corruption in 2016. The officials did damage to the amount of 33,3 billion tenge," representative of the Anti-Corruption Agency Maksatkhan Anapin said.

Based on the results of the poll conducted by the Anti-Corruption Agency, Mangistau (29%), Zhambyl (24%) and Almaty (22%) regions are the most corrupt in Kazakhstan. North Kazakhstan region (0,4%) turned out to be the least corrupt region in Kazakhstan. Over the past five years Kazakhstan has been robbed of 70 billion tenge. 47 corrupt officials are still on international wanted list.

In order to modernize the civil service a competitive career model was introduced in Kazakhstan. At first, those willing to join the civil service sit a test for knowledge of laws. Their personal qualities are tested at the second stage and only after that they are invited for a job interview. A 20-40% increase in salaries of civil servants halved employee turnover. 59 laws ("On counter-corruption", "On civil service", "On access to information", etc) were adopted since the development of anti-corruption strategy in Kazakhstan.

"Kazakhstan saw significant improvement in international anti-corruption rankings thanks to these and other measures. For instance, it is currently ranked 123rd out of 168 countries in the TransparencyInternational rankings, compared to 140th place in 2014. Canada, Finland, Germany are the least corrupt countries in the world. Afghanistan, Sudan and Venezuela have the highest level of corruption," Anapin noted.

The National Chamber of Entrepreneurs "Atameken" also works tirelessly to fight corruption.

"We created our own Council on protection of entrepreneurs' rights that has been functioning effectively for the past three years. Analogous council headed by Gani Kassymov was established at a republican level. Moreover, the Anti-Corruption Council was formed at the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs "Atameken" as well. Kairbek Suleimenov was appointed as head of the newly formed council. Our business should be more transparent. Such public associations as "Zhanaru" can ensure transparency of civil servants' work. The most important thing is to mold public opinion against public corruption," Director of the Almaty Chamber of Entrepreneurs Yuri Tleumuratov said.

"As you know Kazakhstan's place in the Doing Business rankings is based on Almaty city. Kazakhstan has climbed six spots up to №35 in the rankings this year. To achieve that, we worked jointly with the Almaty city administration and all government bodies. 196 amendments were made into the existing legislation to ease life of our entrepreneurs. The Head of State gave an instruction to make sure that our entrepreneurs ‘can breathe"," Deputy Head for legal issues of the Almaty Chamber of Entrepreneurs Kairat Kudaibergen added.