Life-guardsmen of Nursultan Nazarbaev

Agency for Fighting Corruption – a repressive machine guarding the interests of the main corruptionist of Kazakhstan.
(Part I)

For the article I have carefully collected the facts, which I suggest will be thoroughly studied by the reader. In my opinion, Kazakh society lacks the important information that since 2005 there has been an institution in Kazakhstan, which can “take anyone by the hand and put in jail”. Kazakhstan Agency for Fighting Corruption and Economic Crimes was established on financial police basis, and is subordinated to Nursultan Nazarbaev personally. Its employees have wide powers and special privileges. All headline-making cases of the last decade, from “Ablyazov’s case” to “Dosmukhamedov’s case” were initiated by the Agency. The institution is responsible for thousands of broken lives. Under the guise of the fight against corruption this repressive apparatus, on the one hand, puts personas non grata to jail, and on the other hand, fulfills the plan.

History of establishment

On the official site in the section “About the Agency- History” one can retrace the history of tax body transformation into a repressive institution under the personal control of Nursultan Nazarbaev.

The start point is perhaps 1997, when in accordance with Decree of the President a new criminal procedure code regulating the tax police status was approved in Kazakhstan. The document grants to the tax police the right of preliminary investigation for the cases of the so called tax jurisdiction. This is very important because later on the status of the organization and its power will change, and by mid-2000s the Agency will have been entitled:

– to bring forcibly the persons avoiding appearance on call;
– to confiscate or seize documents, goods, articles or other property;
– to use the respective temporary detention facilities;
– to create and use information systems;
… and it is only a few of super powers from the list called “Basic Functions and Rights of the Agency” approved by  Decree No. 1557 signed by N. Nazarbaev.

In 2001 Nursultan Nazarbaev abolished the Tax Police Committee and established the Financial Police Agency, i.е. after political crisis and defeat of the social movement “Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan” in 2001. Then, in 2001– 2004, the Kazakh President was deeply absorbed in establishment of his institution. During this period decrees of the country leader pour like from a horn of plenty. Along with special privileges and pensions, the financial police get a banner, a coat of arms, and even an employee’s oath, according to the Agency’s site, written by President Nazarbaev personally.

In December of 2005 Nursultan Nazarbaev won the presidential election with record breaking 91.5%, and in February he signed Decree No. 1521 “on reorganization of Kazakhstan Agency for Fighting Corruption and Economic Crimes (financial police) into a state agency directly subordinated and accountable to President of Kazakhstan.

Since then the balance of power in Kazakh security agencies has started to change. All institutions, from the National Security Committee and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to tax departments have been ordered to provide assistance to the agency. People in blue are in a special position. The Agency employs a bit less than 4,000 people. The first chairman of the agency was late Sarybay Kalmurzaev, the second – Kairat Kozhamzharov, and since 2012 – the former Prosecutor-General of the Republic of Kazakhstan – Rashid Tusupbekov.

Virtual Fight

Let’s ask a question – what has been going on with corruption in Kazakhstan for about 10 years of existence of the Agency to fight it? According to annual report of Transparency International  foundation the level of corruption in Kazakhstan is steadily growing.  In 2005 the country was the 107^th  in the annual rating, and by 2014 Kazakhstan has slid to the 140^th position (rating scale: from 1 – countries with a zero corruption level, up to 170 – countries having 10 and higher).

Corruption indices in Kazakhstan say one thing, and Agency’s reports say quite another. Here is the example from the report ”Strategic Plan for Fighting Corruption for 2009 – 2011”: …the number of adjudicated criminal cases involving corruption offenses  has increased. If in 2006 courts heard 63.8% of corruption cases initiated, in 2007 the figure amounted to 84.5%. The statistics shows that financial police bodies are purposefully working at inevitability of punishment. So, the work seems to be done, people are put to jail, but there is no results of victory over corruption like before. A natural question arises – why?

First of all, corruption offences shall be proved by the facts of financial offenses. This issue is under the jurisdiction of the Tax Committee subordinated to the Ministry of Finance. If I am in private business, I also have certain rights and freedoms protected by the Law on Investments, private business, etc.  My business is checked by tax authorities, every year I submit reports and fill in declarations. The Agency for Fighting Corruption does not perform the job like that. They work in another way. At first they accuse, and then start cooperating with financial supervision bodies to find out details.

I can give my personal example. In the case with accusation of our family the Agency had no financial or tax reports. Until 2011 the Tax Committee had not claims to us. And in 2011 it was the Agency which initiated a case against us. How was it done? First the information was provided; in the Agency’s structure there is a whole information and analytical department faking up such matters. On compromising sites there appeared a list of property items allegedly owned by the family of ex-akim of Almaty Khrapunov.  This list included everything, property which was a part of a business sold ten years before, or “garages”, which in fact were parking places adjacent to the office building. On the same principle Mukhtar Ablyazov was “granted” as a private property a 9-storey building being on the bank balance, so all apartments in the house were allegedly owned by him personally. The main goal of such fakes is to belie and to make a malicious image. They have nothing in common with the reality.

Then, on the basis of such faked information attacks the Agency starts investigation. At first they accuse, and then start cooperating with financial supervision bodies to find out details. This is the way they work with those whom the country leader ordered them to attack.

The situation at the level where the Agency just tries to fulfill its plan is even worse. Thousands of cases are initiated.  People are caught out in minor bribes, nice reports are written, and figures are provided. A person can be accused of bribery without recording of the fact of giving bribe and without any material evidence, according to the information received from a third party protected by investigation department, who even will not be present in court. His/her surname will not be disclosed, and he/she will even get remuneration.

It reminds of the court of “three” in 1937, doesn’t it?

(In the second part of the article there will be analyzed where major corruptionists do their job, and why nobody tries to catch them. For reference:  Transparency International emphasizes that  KazMunaiGas “provides relatively little data on deductions from its income and payments in accordance with anti-corruption programs”, and due to this fact the company has been classified as medium in terms of income transparency).

To be continued.

^* the text is edited by the Press Secretary

Transparency International
По данным Индекса восприятия коррупции 2005, в 70 странах мира по-прежнему царит взяточничество
Финансовая полиция Республики Казахстан: цифры и факты
Приоритет финполиции — предупреждение коррупции

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