Chairman of the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for anti-corruption Alik SHPEKBAYEV told on his Facebook page about the most important initiatives of the third package of anti-corruption reforms of the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart TOKAYEV

Chairman of the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for anti-corruption Alik SHPEKBAYEV on his Facebook page told about the most important initiatives of the third block of anti-corruption reforms of the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

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.
It instructed to introduce institutions for dismissing managers and bringing subordinates to disciplinary responsibility for corruption, restore anti-corruption expertise of draft legal acts, and switch to a differentiated system of incentives for reporting corruption to citizens. All new initiatives were reflected in specific laws and proved to be effective means of prevention.
Other Antikor initiatives have also received conceptual support. The creation of compliance services in quasi-government and private sectors; expansion of subjects of corruption by employees of the national companies, responsible for procurement and project Finance; complete ban on bonus payments and the premiums received by public employees; establishing criminal liability for criminal provocative actions of law enforcement officers; bringing to administrative responsibility of heads of quasi-public sector for failing to combat corruption. These innovations are currently being considered in the Senate-they should show that the initiatives are being implemented in the near future.
Society may think that the state apparatus will be limited only by this. However, the consistent implementation of the concept of "a state that supports the voice of the people" has intensified anti-corruption work. The coronavirus pandemic has almost opened the page of chronic corruption "epidemics" in various areas of public administration, in particular, from the health sector to digitalization. Therefore, on August 19 this year, the head of state held a special meeting on further modernization of Kazakhstan's anti-corruption policy, the main theses of which were included in the personal blog of yesterday's address.
I will briefly focus on the most important initiatives of the President of the third package of anti-corruption reforms.
First, we need to strengthen responsibility for corruption. First of all, this applies to law enforcement officers and judges. In my opinion, they should be brought to strict responsibility for corruption crimes, observing the rule of law and order. The issue of tougher bribery penalties for bribe-takers and intermediaries will be worked out. The abolition of parole for convicted corrupt officials will have the most powerful preventive effect. In continuation of this practice, we welcome the application of multiple fines for particularly serious corruption crimes and the abolition of the revision of the punishment imposed on corrupt officials in the colonies.
Secondly, starting from 2021, it is planned to introduce a ban on holding Bank accounts abroad for civil servants, deputies and judges. 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 eliminate the possibility of withdrawing corrupt capital abroad.
Third,I think that the adoption of the law "on public control" will give a real impetus to the wider involvement of citizens and non-governmental organizations in the systematic fight against corruption and bureaucracy. It will reflect specific mechanisms of interaction between representatives of society and state bodies on multi-faceted issues. The interactive map of open budgets developed by Antikor will become the main tool for ensuring transparency of state bodies. In addition, the role of public councils working not only with state bodies, but also in national companies will be significantly strengthened. An important tool for activating civil society will be the development of a comprehensive system for protecting suppliers of information about corruption on the basis of 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 double increase in official salaries will be another indisputable advantage in preventing corruption in the public 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 main 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 Declaration of income, the civil servant registers all his assets. If at the time of submission of the next Declaration, a significant increase in its income is found, which cannot be justified, it is subject to measures of exemption from public service and confiscation of unjustified excess of the amount.
The introduction of the Institute of professional non-sales checks used in developed countries will have a significant preventive impact.
The issue of applying anti-corruption legislation to persons who are not civil servants but perform public functions is also on the agenda. In other words, we propose that top managers of commercial banks, heads of natural monopoly entities, private bailiffs, and other categories of public servants, such as government employees, be held criminally liable for bribery. This experience is widespread all over the world.

Today, the society's desire to minimize corruption is even greater. Therefore, we cannot overestimate the relevance of comprehensive anti-corruption reforms. With the full support of the head of state and the head of state, we aim to introduce the most effective anti-corruption tools in Kazakhstan. This is the main condition for economic growth and improving the welfare of citizens.