Kazakhstan: almost $370 million was the damage from illegal actions of customs services
The budget of Kazakhstan lost $366.6 million as a result of the implementation of illegal customs schemes revealed by the Prosecutor General’s Office of the republic as part of an audit conducted on behalf of the President of the country Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. According to the Department, the damage was caused by evasion of customs payments and false declaration of goods.
“Only at customs posts bordering China, 367 cases of unreliable declaration of goods were revealed. Authorized economic operators, in order to evade entrepreneurs from taxes, forged invoices worth $491.1 million over the past two years. During the month of the audit, 16 facts of smuggling worth $1.7 million were established,” the Department notes.
The Prosecutor General’s Office also reported that customs laws were violated not only by entrepreneurs, but also by officials of customs posts.
“So, on January 27 of this year, during the second inspection of the cargo of the company “Bereket Logistic”, an employee of the Prosecutor’s Office revealed contraband weighing 22 tons worth $282.2 thousand. But, Moshkanov (the specialist of Nur Zholy customs post), conducting the initial inspection, indicated the weight of the undeclared goods at only 337 kg.
In another case, employees of the Department of State Revenues of Almaty, by updating the information systems, allowed 9 importers to bypass the verification of the customs value of goods in the amount of $317.7 thousand.
By joint efforts of the Anti-Corruption Agency and the Prosecutor General’s Office, the head of the customs post “Nur Zholy” and his deputy were detained for giving a bribe in the amount of $50,000 to an employee of the Prosecutor’s Office who imitated criminal activity. Also, a representative of Cargo Management was taken into custody for giving a bribe to inspectors in the amount of $30,000. Pre-trial investigations are being carried out on all the above facts,” the supervisory authority noted.
Earlier ACCA reported on the detention of a number of high-ranking officials of Nur Zholy customs post (located on the Kazakh-Chinese border) – its head Tursynbek Ermekov and his deputy Vitaly Sauer. The intermediaries, who were involved in the attempt to bribe (the former head of Nur Zholy customs post Zhumabek Akmurzin and the chief specialist of this post Bektur Muzdybaev), were not detained, since they not only pleaded guilty and repented, but also assisted in exposing the true corrupt officials.
It’s also worth noting that President Tokayev ordered to check the customs structures, having more than strong reasons for this.
At customs posts, primarily located on the Kazakh-Chinese border, there are not only smuggling, but also various other illegal schemes that made it possible to rob the state in favor of third parties owning the very companies that were engaged in customs clearance of goods at the border. A far from complete list of these companies was listed by the Prosecutor General’s Office. These are Almobi Group, The Group of companies TDA, TEX Alliance Service, DEC Service, Asia Logistic LLC, TL Nika Keden, Cargo Management, Express Keden Service and GB Invest. All these companies, in fact, belonged to the brother of the first President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Bulat Nazarbayev.
However, after the January events in Kazakhstan and the removal of all members of Nursultan Nazarbayev’s clan from key posts, a redistribution took place not only in power echelons, but also in other areas. Thus, according to the information available to/wptoms posts operating on the Kazakh-Chinese border, new companies have appeared that already belong to members of the clan of the new President of the country.
