Kazakhstan: officials resign due to corruption of subordinates

The Anti-Corruption Agency of Kazakhstan began to monitor the implementation of the law on the responsibility of leaders, whose subordinates were convicted of corruption offenses.

We recall that in November last year, the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev, signed the law “On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Civil Service and Anti-Corruption Issues,” according to which leaders became personally responsible for their employees involved in corruption crimes.

As the deputy chairman of the Anti-Corruption Agency, Olzhas Bektenov explained then, the law applies to all political civil servants: ministers, vice-ministers, mayors of regions, cities of republican significance – Nur-Sultan, Almaty, Shymkent, as well as districts and its deputies.

“All of them will be obliged to resign if their direct subordinates commit a corruption crime,” Bektenov emphasized, explaining that officials whose subordinates were caught on bribes and other corruption offenses will have to write a letter of resignation of their own accord within 10 calendar days after the entry into force of the court verdict or the termination of the criminal case on non-rehabilitating grounds concerning his immediate subordinate.

However, since then, nothing has been heard about the implementation of this norm. Even though fighters against corruption in Kazakhstan almost every day catch dishonest officials, their leaders for various reasons were not responsible. Some had an excuse that the investigation into the case of a corrupt subordinate had begun even before the law was passed, while others had inherited the corrupt subordinates from their predecessor.

And finally, the first ones appeared who had to take on the burden of responsibility. According to the Agency for the Fight against Corruption, the mayor of the city of Shu, Zhambyl region, and the mayor of Chingirlau district of West Kazakhstan region, submitted their resignation exactly for this reason.

“The mayor of the city of Satpayev, Karaganda region, also resigned for corruption offenses of his subordinates, but his resignation was not accepted. He was brought to disciplinary responsibility in the form of a reprimand, – noted in the Agency. – This week, the chief of staff of the mayor of the city of Rudny, Kostanay region, was relieved of his post, according to the submitted application, without waiting for a court verdict – in connection with the start of a pre-trial investigation on suspicion of corruption against the mayor of a settlement directly subordinate to him.”