Embezzlement of budget funds in private schools and misuse in the agro-industrial complex: the Government has summarized the preliminary results of the audit
As part of the implementation of the instructions of the Head of State to strengthen budget discipline, the Government is carrying out systematic work to analyze the efficiency of spending funds in key sectors of the economy, primeminister.kz reports.
Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov heard a report by Minister of Finance Madi Takiyev, who presented the preliminary results of the audit of financing for private schools and the agro-industrial complex. According to the Ministry of Finance, the number of private schools has increased from 203 in 2020 to 878 schools in 2025, while the number of students over the five-year period has grown sixfold-from 53 thousand to 322 thousand children. At the same time, the volume of budget expenditures in this area amounted to 248 billion tenge, exceeding the 2020 level (13.3 billion tenge) by 20 times.
It was noted that until the end of 2025, the financing system for private schools was fragmented and uncontrolled, which created conditions for data distortion and misuse of budget funds. In this regard, since the end of last year, financing has been transferred to the digital platform Orta-bilim.e-qazyna, which ensures transparency and automation of all stages. At this stage, this has already confirmed the effectiveness of the new approach and makes it possible to minimize the risks of improper use of funds.
The audit of private school financing conducted by the Ministry of Finance revealed a number of systemic violations, including:
- overstating the number of students through fictitious enrollments and multiple transfers between schools;
- unjustified overstatement of the number of student places without regard to the actual capacity of buildings (exceeding standard capacity by more than three times);
- obtaining double benefits by understating income in tax reporting in order to receive budget financing while simultaneously reducing tax payments;
- carrying out current and cosmetic repairs instead of capital repairs (in the absence of design documentation and cost estimates).
- The Minister of Finance cited numerous facts of violations. It was emphasized that the facts identified by the audit indicate that for a significant portion of private schools, participation in state financing was viewed not as a mechanism to ensure accessibility and quality of education, but as a tool for extracting benefits at the expense of the budget rather than achieving a social objective. The violations became possible due to negligence or direct involvement of officials of state bodies.
Audit activities of the Ministry of Finance are ongoing, and based on their results, proposals and recommendations will be prepared to improve the mechanism for financing private schools.
According to the results of the audit of financing of the agro-industrial complex, in the period 2023-2024 the total volume of identified violations amounted to about 300 billion tenge, of which direct budget losses totaled 32 billion tenge. In total, about 1.2 trillion tenge was allocated over two years for state support measures for the agro-industrial complex.
Minister of Finance Madi Takiyev noted that significant funds are being used without achieving the expected economic effect and benefits for the population. As a result of the audit, a number of systemic violations were identified. In particular, shadow schemes totaling 5.5 billion tenge were established in the subsidization of agricultural producers. Specifically, in 11 regions, cases were recorded of fictitious resale of the same cattle between subsidy recipients in the amount of 808.1 million tenge.
In addition, Minister of Finance Madi Takiyev cited a number of specific violations in the provision of subsidies. For investment projects in the agro-industrial complex implemented through budget loans, violations totaling 13.3 billion tenge were identified. Facts were established where livestock and equipment were either not supplied at all or supplied in smaller volumes, and certain construction works were paid for but not actually performed.
Serious violations were also identified in the issuance of microloans to end borrowers with overdue debts and existing arrests. Madi Takiyev reported that 25 borrowers with total arrears of 45.8 million tenge received loans totaling 177.7 million tenge.
It was noted that the implementation of financing programs for fieldwork and harvesting, with an annual volume of 140 billion tenge and coverage of 3.2 thousand borrowers, demonstrated systemic inefficiency. JSC "Agrarian Credit Corporation," established to finance current agricultural operations, does not ensure the declared coverage of up to 70% of farmers’ costs. Funds are distributed in small amounts among a large number of borrowers, which does not allow the full production cycle to be ensured.
Taking into account the identified violations and misuse of budget funds, and in order to increase the effectiveness of state support for the agro-industrial complex, the Head of Government gave a number of instructions:
- to introduce end-to-end digital monitoring with integration of the information systems of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture, and local executive bodies;
- to revise subsidy systems with a focus on actual output rather than paper indicators;
- to apply format-logical control blocking the sale of subsidized livestock until the conditions of state support are fulfilled;
- to conduct mandatory state expertise of construction and installation works for investment projects implemented using state loans.
Materials on specific facts of violations are being transferred to law enforcement agencies for procedural decisions.
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Tokayev hands over State Flag to flag bearers of national Olympic and Paralympic teams
Images | Akorda
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev highlighted the importance of the upcoming XXV Winter Olympic Games and XIV Winter Paralympic Games, which will gather world’s strongest athletes in Italy, Qazinform News Agency learned from the Akorda press service.
According to him, around 40 athletes will represent Kazakhstan at the Olympic Games, competing in 10 sports, with the majority making their debut at this prestigious event.
Tokayev emphasized that the road to the Winter Olympics has been challenging. He noted that Kazakh athletes have already achieved remarkable success, winning 17 gold, 31 silver, and 21 bronze medals at international competitions.
He stressed that high hopes are placed on the para-athletes, who have secured 10 quotas for the 2026 Winter Paralympic Games scheduled for early March.
Over the years of Independence, our athletes have repeatedly demonstrated their high professionalism, achieving victories at the Winter Olympic Games through tough competition. The names of Vladimir Smirnov, Lyudmila Prokasheva, Elena Khrustaleva, Denis Ten, Yulia Galysheva, and many other Olympians are forever inscribed in the history of national sports. In honor of the achievements of our athletes on the world’s largest sporting arenas, the anthem has been played and the flag of our country has been raised many times. I believe that there are many more victories ahead," said the President.
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Automatic Pre-Filling of VAT Declarations and "Digital VAT": Olzhas Bektenov Held a Meeting on Tax Administration
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Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov held a meeting on the development of fiscal policy and the digitalization of the information systems of the Ministry of Finance as part of the implementation of the instructions of the Head of State Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Heads of relevant agencies and regional departments of state revenues took part in the meeting, primeminister.kz reports.
The results of the execution of the revenue part of the state budget for 2025 were reviewed. According to Minister of Finance Madi Takiyev, the revenue plan was fulfilled by 100.1%, and 24.6 trillion tenge was received into the budget following the results of last year.
With the new Tax Code entering into force on January 1, 2026, 454 thousand taxpayers confirmed the conduct of activities under the simplified declaration; 138 thousand individuals were registered as self-employed (of which 122 thousand had not previously been registered). More than 7 thousand business entities - new VAT payers - were registered.
The Prime Minister emphasized that the priority task of state bodies is the formation of a service-oriented approach, ensuring transparency and a fair approach to taxpayers. In this regard, the heads of state revenue departments were presented with the main principles of work.
Fair, convenient, and understandable. This is exactly how the tax payment process should be. Tax service employees should become consultants and partners of business. Liability measures are provided only for those who deliberately conceal income. Therefore, the entire year of 2026 will be transitional for small and microbusinesses - penalties and fines for mistakes will not be charged. This way, entrepreneurs will be able to use this year for a smooth adaptation to the changes," Olzhas Bektenov noted.
Deputy Minister of Finance Yerzhan Birzhanov reported on the work being carried out to introduce a new digital architecture of the State Revenue Committee (SRC) and to transfer tax and customs administration to a microservice model.
In order to optimize fiscal processes, the SRC has put into operation 5 modern digital platforms instead of the previous 12 outdated information systems. This made it possible to simplify taxation procedures, create favorable conditions for bona fide business, and strengthen control over violations.
Since the beginning of the current year, about 500 thousand applications for transition to the simplified taxation regime have been processed. 800 thousand tax reporting forms are already in the new information systems of the state revenue authorities. Digital services serve about 1.7 million business entities. On average, more than 87 thousand taxpayers visit the system daily.
The main advantages of optimization are fast processing of tax documents with a reduction in time from 1 hour to 1 minute, receipt of online payments, a high level of system availability, and an increase in the number of simultaneous users (from 100 thousand to 250 thousand). Format-logical control has been introduced to support and prevent errors by entrepreneurs.
Since this year, automatic pre-filling of VAT declarations has been implemented, which simplifies the fulfillment of obligations for business. For the self-employed, status is assigned automatically through the mobile application e-Salyq Business.
At the same time, new digital tools are used not only for tax and customs administration, but also for the formation of statistics, monitoring prices for food and socially significant goods, regional fuel needs, calculation of benefits, issuance of subsidies, exclusion of unlawful procurements by the quasi-public sector, activities of law enforcement agencies, and others.
The unified analytical Big Data platform has combined data from 74 sources. It contains all key information about taxpayers, including data on real estate, transport, land plots, financial operations, and international transactions within the framework of currency control, among others. Analytical tools ensured additional tax and payment revenues of more than 700 billion tenge in 2025 and increased the targeting of control.
Transparency in submitted tax declarations and issued invoices provides additional tools for identifying signs of the use of illegal schemes. For example, through the pilot implementation in Astana of a new service for selecting high-risk taxpayers for violations of cash discipline, violations were recorded for 55.9 thousand out of 121 thousand taxpayers.
The leadership of the Ministry of Finance cited specific examples:
- In Astana, the owner of one of the public catering establishments was included in the list of high-risk taxpayers due to a discrepancy between issued receipts and the number of orders actually fulfilled. As a result, the entrepreneur acknowledged the violations and submitted an additional declaration.
- In the Mangystau region, an analysis of the activities of an energy company revealed an overstatement of the cost of purchased pipelines by a preliminary amount of 16.9 billion tenge. A criminal case has been initiated on this fact.
- In the same Mangystau region, a number of significant inconsistencies were identified at an LLP, indicating the creation of a tax evasion scheme. In particular, most individual entrepreneur suppliers - counterparties - submitted reports from the IP address of the LLP itself; some individual entrepreneurs are employees of the general contractor, and others.
- In Almaty, a significant overstatement of wages was established on the eve of obtaining state contracts for the construction of comfortable schools. Thus, during the construction of one of the facilities, the salary of the head of the LLP increased to 131.5 million, which indicates a possible deliberate increase in construction costs. An inspection has been appointed on this fact.
As a result of the introduction of a biometric identification module for taxpayers showing signs of issuing fictitious electronic invoices, 17.4 thousand high-risk enterprises were identified. The possibility of illegal issuance of electronic invoices in the amount of 30 billion tenge was suppressed.
An important step is the launch of the "Digital VAT" module, which ensures transparent and controlled VAT refunds using the digital tenge.
Currency control" has been integrated with the information system of the National Bank to obtain information on payments carried out by authorized second-tier banks.
The international flights module will allow for preliminary analysis of passenger traffic and identification of patterns in the movement of individuals and goods.
In addition, international integrations are currently in place within the framework of the OECD (CRS) with 80 countries, the USA (FATCA), and the CIS (5 countries) for the automatic exchange of information on residents’ income and property abroad. As a result of the measures taken, tax revenues in the amount of about 6 billion tenge have been ensured.
Special attention was paid to the ongoing work on the phased implementation of the Keden information system with automation of processes and a transition to transparent and effective control. To date, 12 thousand users are registered in the system, 1.4 million transit, 460 thousand customs, and about 1.1 million passenger declarations have been issued.
The launch of Keden reduced the processing time for transit declarations from 30 to 10 minutes and automated interaction with related control services. Overall, due to the digitized database and the conducted analytics, additional customs payments in the amount of 115 billion tenge were accrued to the budget in 2025.
Following the meeting, Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov instructed state bodies to keep under special control the ongoing work on large-scale digitalization.
- The Ministry of Finance was instructed to ensure high-quality consideration of constructive proposals from the public and experts, with the introduction of specific proposals.
- Territorial departments of state revenues - to ensure proper implementation of the adopted reforms on the ground, as well as the conduct of systematic explanatory work for business and the population.
- The Ministry of Artificial Intelligence - to provide the information systems of the Ministry of Finance with high-speed communication channels and server capacities.
- The Ministry of Finance jointly with the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence - to work out the issue of providing the State Revenue Committee with the necessary computing capacities.
- The Ministries of Trade, Finance, and Artificial Intelligence - by July 1 of the current year to expand the application of the National Catalog of Goods on electronic trading platforms and marketplaces, with subsequent receipt of price information on goods.
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President Tokayev Signs the Board of Peace Charter
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President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has signed the Charter of the Board of Peace, initiated by U.S. President Donald Trump, akorda.kz reports.
Alongside the President of Kazakhstan, leaders and high-level representatives from 18 countries also participated in the signing ceremony.
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Kazakhstan considers easing visa rules with France
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Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan, Alibek Bakayev, commented on the possibility of easing the visa regime between Kazakhstan and France, Qazinform News Agency reports.
Senator Sergey Yershov inquired about how the previously signed readmission agreement might influence efforts to simplify the visa regime with France.
Agreements of this kind, signed on a bilateral basis, help pave the way for both visa-free and readmission agreements, facilitating their faster conclusion. France is not the first country with which we have signed such documents bilaterally, and any bilateral interaction contributes to the development of broader multilateral cooperation," Alibek Bakayev said during the Senate’s meeting.
According to him, work in this direction has already begun.
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Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's Political Reforms Presented to the Croatian Parliament
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Ambassador of the Kazakhstan to Croatia Daulet Batrashev presented the results of the National Kurultai, held on January 20, 2026, to the members of the Parliament of Croatia, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan reports.
The Kazakh diplomat informed about the key political and socioeconomic guidelines outlined by the Head of State at the Kurultai, emphasizing Kazakhstan's commitment to deepening political modernization, strengthening the rule of law, developing an inclusive economy, and enhancing the role of civil dialogue. The Croatian side was briefed on plans to transition to a unicameral parliament and the upcoming referendum, the creation of a new consultative body to unite ethnic groups, regions, and public groups, and the strengthening of national unity.
Praising the foresight of the Head of State, the head of the parliamentary group for cooperation with Kazakhstan, Anđelka Salopek welcomed the political and economic reforms being carried out in the country and emphasized the importance of parliamentary diplomacy as a tool for strengthening mutual trust and sustainable partnership.
The interlocutors discussed the current state and prospects of Kazakh-Croatian interparliamentary cooperation. Particular attention was paid to the further development of parliamentary interaction and the exchange of legislative experience; economic cooperation, including energy, agriculture, transport, and logistics; digital transformation, innovation, and the application of artificial intelligence technologies in public administration and business; and cooperation in education, science, and humanitarian exchanges.
Highlighting the growing role of the parliamentary dimension and successful visit of Croatian parliamentarians to Astana in February 2025, the Croatian politician invited members of the Kazakh Parliament to visit Zagreb this year at a time convenient for the Kazakh side.
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Kazakhstan’s Political Reforms Receive European Recognition
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The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has adopted a written declaration entitled "Support for Kazakhstan’s Democratic Reforms and Regional Leadership", Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan reports.
The document was authored by the British parliamentarian Michael German, a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. The declaration was signed by 21 parliamentarians, representing various political groups within PACE. The statement highly commends Kazakhstan’s unwavering commitment to the implementation of large-scale democratic reforms, which further consolidates the country’s status as a regional leader in the development of democratic governance, the protection of human rights and the strengthening of the rule of law.
The declaration welcomes the significant steps undertaken by Kazakhstan’s political leadership to advance democratic transformation, including constitutional and legislative reforms, as well as the abolition of the death penalty.
Particular emphasis is placed on the cooperation between Kazakhstan and the Council of Europe in key areas, including judicial reform, anti-corruption efforts, the promotion of human rights, and the strengthening of democratic institutions. This cooperation has contributed to tangible results and reinforced Kazakhstan’s role as a model of democratic development in the region.
The document calls for continued support for Kazakhstan’s ongoing democratic transformation and for further development of cooperation aimed at promoting the shared values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
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