In Kazakhstan, religious figures are engaged in the fight against corruption

Corruption in Kazakhstan decreased by 14% during 3 years. This was announced on October 31 by the chairman of the Anti-Corruption Agency Alik Shpekbaev. Religious figures of Kazakhstan believe that this is not without their active participation.

Since the beginning of the year, 2121 offenses have been registered in the Republic, 1590 of them are corruption.

Shpekbaev said that bribery is leading in the top of corruption offenses (850 crimes), embezzlement is at the second place (714 crimes), abuse of power is at the third place (224 crimes).

At the same time, anti-corruption fighters managed to expose 1028 officials, 23 of whom are leaders of the republican level and another 86 – at the regional level.

Shpekbaev noted that against the background of a decrease in the number of corruption crimes, there has been an increase of the damage they caused. Since the beginning of the year, the amount of identified damage amounted to over $60 million. For comparison: for 9 months of 2018, the amount of damage was 1.7 times less ($34.9 million).

“One of the priority tasks is to identify systemic facts of corruption with the identification of the criminal scheme from the performer to the organizer. Since the beginning of the year, 92 such cases have been stopped with the exposure of 347 persons,” Shpekbaev emphasized.

According to the head of the Anti-Corruption Agency, success in reducing corruption has been achieved thanks to comprehensive systematic preventive measures. Among them there are special control over the implementation of state programs in the fields of education, healthcare, housing and communal services; cleansing the judiciary from corrupt officials.

Another effective instrument in the fight against corruption has been the active participation of citizens. So, at the beginning of the year, 3500 calls were received at the Agency’s Call Center, 600 of them signaled corruption offenses.

To achieve better results, the Anti-Corruption Agency, according to Shpekbaev, suggests limiting the use of parole for grave and especially grave corruption crimes.

In addition, the Agency intends to oblige all civil servants, as well as law enforcement officials and the military, to publish declarations of income and expenses and, in the case of a significant difference in them, to apply career and financial sanctions to such officials.

Another know-how from anti-corruption fighters is the idea of ​​introducing the Integrity Check for law enforcement officers and control authorities. According to Shpekbaev, those employees, who do not pass the test, will be immediately dismissed, but without criminal prosecution.

“The Agency has formed these legal norms and is ready for legislative study,” said Shpekbaev.

Meanwhile, it became known that the reduction in corruption in Kazakhstan is taking place not only thanks to Shpekbaev’s Department, but also to religious figures. This was announced in Almaty by the chief city imam Erkinbek Shokai at the briefing on anti-corruption strategy.

“On certain Friday days throughout the Republic, imams in mosques read instructions and sermons about banning bribery in Islam, about how bribery is harmful to people and society, how corruption can ruin the state. “This is one of our anti-corruption measures,” said Shokai.

According to the imam, corruption can and should be fought with the help of religion. He noted that a large number of people hear sermons about the sin of bribery, because on Fridays in mosques there are sometimes 50-60 thousand people. In addition, Shokai emphasized that among the ministers of mosques, there is not a single corrupt official.