Kazakhstan Wasted Almost 650 Billion Tenge In 2025, Auditors Say

Kazakhstan inefficiently used almost 650 billion tenge from the republican budget in 2025, Orda.kz reports.

The Supreme Audit Chamber submitted its opinion on the government’s report on the implementation of the republican budget for 2025.

According to the chamber, the budget was executed without formal clarification, but the government made eight adjustments during the year. Auditors said these adjustments did not improve budget management, but instead softened the consequences of poor planning. For some budget programs, spending was reduced to 90% of the originally approved amount after the adjustments.

But not everything is so clear here. Instead of serving as a flexible mechanism to improve the efficiency of fund management, the adjustments actually smoothed over the consequences of inefficient planning. For some administrators, spending, after eight adjustments, was reduced in total to 90% of the originally approved budget for the relevant budget program,Yulia Engel, a member of the Supreme Audit Chamber, said in the Mazhilis.

Budget revenues, excluding transfers, fell short by 335.3 billion tenge. Inefficient use of budget funds in 2025 amounted to 648.7 billion tenge, or 2.5% of total expenditures.

The chamber attributed this partly to an overly optimistic forecast for tax revenues. Auditors also said VAT refunds worth almost 900 billion tenge were suspended in 2025.

The Supreme Audit Chamber also criticized the quality of tax control. In 2025, the amount disputed in court over tax assessments more than doubled. Over the past four years, courts have ruled in favor of taxpayers on more than half of the appealed amounts.

The quality and effectiveness of tax control have deteriorated. In 2025, the amount of court appeals over tax assessments more than doubled. At the same time, over the past four years, more than half of the appealed amounts have been awarded by courts in favor of taxpayers. The spending structure shows a gradual shift toward servicing accumulated liabilities and current consumption. As a result, the development budget is limited. Today, it is 6.4%, compared with 8.1% in 2024,Engel added.

State auditors also said the structure of spending is gradually shifting toward servicing accumulated liabilities and current consumption. The share of the development budget fell from 8.1% in 2024 to 6.4% in 2025.

During the year, 2.4 trillion tenge was redistributed, 99 budget investment projects worth 75 billion tenge were removed, and 141 of the 683 projects scheduled for completion were not finished.

I would especially like to focus on the pilot project to introduce a block budget. Its key goal is to make the mechanism for implementing budget programs more flexible, including the possibility of quickly redistributing funds without long approval procedures. The government report does not provide information on the effectiveness of block budgeting for pilot state bodies. We see a limited effect from block budgeting. The chronic deficit of the republican budget and the high share of unfinished projects do not allow the block budget to work at full capacity,Engel said.

The chamber also drew attention to the budget’s dependence on the National Fund. In 2025, transfers from the National Fund amounted to 5.3 trillion tenge.

At the same time, 107 projects worth 41.4 billion tenge were financed through the National Fund, even though they did not meet the criteria of strategic or national scale. Auditors listed street and park improvements, the construction of rural clubs and leisure centers, and street lighting in villages among such projects.

During implementation, 14% of projects were withdrawn because of poor planning, and some were replaced with projects that had no project documentation. It is not entirely clear how the cost was justified when the projects were included. Attempts to assess the effect of the money withdrawn from the National Fund were unsuccessful, Engel said.

Another problem is national projects. According to the chamber, they have lost the character of long-term strategic initiatives. Their timelines, financing, facilities, and targets have been repeatedly changed. Total underfunding of national projects in 2025 amounted to 38% of the plan.

Original author: Ilya Astakhov

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