Friends, as you know, strengthening the fight against corruption is one of the main directions of the Head of state's policy.
The President announced the first package of anti-corruption reforms On may 20, last year, I instructed to introduce institutions of resignation and disciplinary responsibility of managers for corruption of subordinates, restore anti-corruption expertise of NPA projects, and switch to a differentiated system of incentives for citizens for reporting corruption. All these novels were reflected in specific laws and have already proven to be effective preventive tools.
Conceptual support and other initiatives of the Anticorrosive. These are the creation of compliance services in the quasi-public and private sectors; the expansion of subjects of corruption at the expense of employees of national companies responsible for procurement and project financing; a complete ban on civil servants to give and receive gifts; the establishment of criminal liability of law enforcement officers for provoking crimes; the introduction of administrative responsibility for managers of the quasi-public sector for failure to take anti-corruption measures. These innovations are currently being considered in the Senate, this indicates that the second package of anti-corruption reforms will soon be implemented.
Many people might have thought that the state apparatus would limit itself to this.
However, the consistent implementation of the "listening state" concept has activated the anti-corruption agenda. The coronavirus pandemic has actually exposed chronic corruption "diseases" in various areas of public administration: from healthcare to digitalization. That is why the Head of state held a special meeting on August 19 this year on further modernization of Kazakhstan's anti-corruption policy, the key theses of which were included in a separate block in yesterday's Message. I will briefly tell you about the most important initiatives of the third package of anti-corruption reforms of the President.
The first is to increase responsibility for corruption. First of all, this will affect law enforcement officers and judges. I think no one has any doubts that, being on the guard of law and order, they should bear a tougher responsibility for corruption crimes. The issue will be worked out and The second is the introduction of a ban on civil servants, deputies and judges from owning Bank accounts abroad from 2021. This initiative is important not only from the point of view of the ideology of serving in the interests of the country, but also in order to level the opportunities for the withdrawal of corrupt capital.
The third is the adoption of the law on public control, which, in my opinion, will become a real catalyst for greater involvement of citizens and non-governmental organizations in the systemic fight against corruption and bureaucracy. It will reflect the specific mechanisms of interaction between public figures and government agencies on a wide range of issues. A big step forward will be ensuring absolute transparency of government agencies, the main tool of which is the Interactive map of open budgets developed by Antikor. In addition, the role of public councils that will operate will be significantly strengthened not only in government agencies, but also in national companies. An equally important tool for activating civil society will be the development of a comprehensive system for protecting whistleblowers about corruption based on the best foreign practices.
It is particularly important to note the strategic importance of the President's decision to accelerate the reduction of the number of civil servants and employees of the quasi-public sector by 25% by the end of 2021. Thus, a full-fledged transition to a factor-point system of remuneration
with a twofold increase in official salaries, it will be another undeniable plus in the context of effective prevention of corruption in the civil service.
Currently, anti-corruption initiatives resulting from the recommendations of the OECD, GRECO, and the UN have been worked out together with the Government. The key one is the introduction of civil liability for illegal enrichment of officials. Taking into account the launch of the first stage of universal Declaration in 2021, we propose the following mechanism. In the initial, so-called entrance Declaration, the civil servant will record all their assets.
If the filing of the next Declaration reveals a significant increase in income, which he can not justify, he will be dismissed from the civil service and the confiscation of the amount of unjustified excess.
A serious preventive effect will be the introduction of the Institute of professional integrity testing, which is successfully applied in developed countries.
Also on the agenda is the issue of extending the anti-corruption legislation to persons who are not civil servants, but perform public functions. In other words, we suggest that top managers of commercial banks, heads of natural monopoly entities, private bailiffs and a number of other categories of public servants should be held criminally liable for receiving bribes and kickbacks, as civil servants. This practice is common all over the world.
Today, society's demand for a tangible minimization of corruption is greater than ever. Therefore, it is simply impossible to overestimate the relevance of comprehensive anti-corruption reforms. With the full support of the President and the head of state, we set an ambitious goal – to implement the most effective anti-corruption tools in Kazakhstan, which is a basic condition for economic growth and improving the welfare of citizens.