Average bribe rate in Kazakhstan is $532
Four regions of Kazakhstan have the highest rates of corruption. These are West Kazakhstan, Atyrau, Mangistau and Kyzylorda regions. The lowest indicators of corruption are recorded in the East Kazakhstan, Kostanay and Karaganda regions, as well as in the capital of the Republic, in the city of Nur-Sultan.
In the other seven regions (Turkestan, Zhambyl, Aktobe, Almaty, Pavlodar, Akmola and North Kazakhstan), as well as in the million-plus cities of Almaty and Chimkent, the level of corruption is assessed as average. This was announced at the Republican forum of entrepreneurs on anti-corruption issues by the well-known Kazakh sociologist, the head of the public foundation Center for Social and Political Research “Strategy”, Gulmira Ileuova.
According to her, as a rule, instigators of corruption are in most cases representatives of the state in 49% of cases (in 2018, this figure was 43%). Entrepreneurs initiate corruption in 39% of cases (in 2018, it was 49%).
“In six areas (tax, public procurement, transport and logic, land relations, the environment and the agro-industrial complex), the state representative, as the initiator of corruption, was named in 50% or more cases,” Ileuova said about the results of a survey of Kazakhstan’s entrepreneurs. “In four regions (Atyrau and Turkestan regions, as well as in the cities of Chimkent and Almaty), the state representative, as the initiator of corruption, was named in 70% or more cases.
Regarding the reasons that push entrepreneurs to corruption, according to Ileuova, the following were named: lack of knowledge of their rights and laws by entrepreneurs (44.1%); entrepreneurs are poorly informed about ways to resolve issues legally (30.6%); in order to speeding-up bureaucratic procedures to resolve issues legally (30.1%); due to the habit that with the help of a bribe all issues are resolved faster and without red tape (29.2%); the imperfection of the law (26.6%) to force the officials to do their work better (25.6%), because officials deliberately delay the solution of the issue, extorting a bribe (22.6%); inaccessibility of the current versions of regulatory and technical documents (18.1%).
In addition, Ileuova noted, as part of the study, it was possible to establish the average rate of a bribe in Kazakhstan. It is 532 US dollars. At the same time, according to the sociologist, the maximum amount of a bribe on average in the country is $1444. Such a bribe is taken in the field of construction, architecture and urban planning. Not much less than the size of the maximum informal payment was recorded in the sphere of land relations ($1269). In third place, in terms of maximum bribes, there is a public procurement ($1138). The smallest bribe sizes, according to the results of the study, were identified in the environmental sphere ($44).
