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Kazakhstan: Overview of corruption and anti-corruption

Kazakhstan faces high levels of grand corruption, nepotism, and administrative corruption, which present particular challenges in public financial management and public procurement. Since assuming power in 2019, President Tokayev has initiated a series of anti-corruption reforms, and Kazakhstan is currently in the process of implementing recommendations made by the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) in its 2022 evaluation report.

4 February 2024
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Kazakhstan: Overview of corruption and anti-corruption

Main points

  • Grand corruption, nepotism and administrative corruption are all evident in Kazakhstan.
  • Important anti-corruption reforms have been launched since the 2019 power shift and unrest in January 2022. There is also evidence to suggest that the state has taken measures to implement many of the recommendations contained in the 2022 GRECO report.
  • The public financial management cycle remains vulnerable to corruption, primarily due to a lack of transparency, inadequate oversight of the quasi-public sector and low competitiveness in public procurement.
  • Corruption is prevalent in the executive branch, law enforcement, local government administration, the education system and the judiciary.
  • Despite political constraints on civil society and journalists, coalitions of civil society organisations and independent media outlets have been active in monitoring and highlighting corruption risks in public contracting.

Cite this publication


Resimić, M. (2024) Kazakhstan: Overview of corruption and anti-corruption. Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute (U4 Helpdesk Answer 2024:6)

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Miloš Resimić

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All views in this text are the author(s)’, and may differ from the U4 partner agencies’ policies.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

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