Alik Shpekbayev slams govt executives over lack of anti-corruption efforts

ASTANA. KAZINFORM Chairman of the Kazakh Agency for Civil Service Affairs and Anti-Corruption Alik Shpekbayev harshly criticized the heads of government bodies over lack of efforts in combating corruption, Kazinform correspondent reports.

"Over the past three years, 108 corruption-related crimes have been registered, while 320 persons have been brought to justice. Almaty, Kyzylorda, Atyrau, Zhambyl, Karaganda, East Kazakhstan regions, and Almaty city remain the leaders in terms of number of such crimes [...] This is largely due to the fact that the heads of local government bodies and institutions often show extremely little interest in eliminating the corruption risks or are plainly incapable of altering the situation," Alik Shpekbayev told the agency's board meeting.

In addition, he emphasized that bribery, embezzlement, and abuse of office are still the most common types of corruption crimes. Mr. Shpekbayev proposed to stiffen the measures on accountability of the government agencies' executives for corruption-related incidents.