The Supreme Audit Chamber has revealed numerous violations in the work of the Audit Commission of Almaty

The Supreme Audit Chamber of the Republic of Kazakhstan has revealed a number of violations in the activities of the Audit Commission of the city of Almaty. The results of the relevant audit were considered at a meeting of the SAC of the Republic of Kazakhstan chaired by Alikhan Smailov.

The main task of the Audit Commission of Almaty is the implementation of external state audit over the execution of the city budget. The audit activity of the SAC in relation to the Audit Commission covered the period from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2023.

It was established that despite the measures taken within the competence to ensure and strengthen financial discipline in Almaty, the Audit Commission does not sufficiently comply with the legislation on civil service, budget and labor legislation.

Thus, cases of allocation of budget funds for services that did not have an actual execution have been identified. For example, due to the lack of actual need to involve audit organizations in 2022-2023, 150.4 million tenge were redistributed to other areas, where the main items of expenditure fell on the payment of bonuses.

When dealing with the payment of bonuses, the Audit Commission of Almaty does not fully comply with the requirements of the legislation, which undermines the principles of fairness and transparency in the use of budgetary funds.

Thus, during December 2023, the facts of repeated payment of bonuses in the amount of 6.5 million tenge "for exemplary performance of official duties" to individual employees of the Audit Commission were admitted. In particular, there were up to five cases of bonuses for people who had worked for less than a quarter since they were hired. At the same time, this happened against the background of non-payment to seconded employees of the required amounts for hiring housing and non-payment of bonuses due to individual civil servants.

In addition, in 2022-2023, in the absence of an assessment of work results and confirmation of high labor efficiency, inspectors were paid bonuses: in 2022 – by 4.5 million tenge, in 2023 – by 17.2 million tenge.

The facts of violations and non-compliance with the standards of state audit and financial control, the Rules of external state audit and internal regulatory documents have also been established. In particular, there was an improper registration of audit evidence.

At the same time, the Audit Commission did not fully take measures to bring officials to administrative responsibility for non-fulfillment or improper fulfillment of instructions issued following the results of inspections.

It was noted by the SAC that in order to eliminate the identified violations and improve the efficiency of the Audit Commission, it is necessary to introduce strict control measures, review the processes of planning and spending budget funds, as well as strengthen responsibility for violations of budget discipline, with consideration of the responsibility of relevant officials in accordance with the procedure established by law, including sending materials to the Agency for Civil Service Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Following the results of the SAC meeting, relevant recommendations and instructions were given to improve the efficiency of the Audit Commission in Almaty.

For reference: audit commissions carry out their activities independently of other state audit bodies. They are financed from the local budget and are accountable to the maslikhat of the relevant region or city in their work.