MP Azat Peruashev Demands Transparency on Efforts to Reduce State Share in Kazakhstan’s Economy

In a parliamentary inquiry to Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, Aq Jol faction leader Azat Peruashev demanded a detailed report on how Kazakhstan is fulfilling its promise to reduce the state’s presence in the economy, Orda.kz reports.

According to the MP, progress has been minimal despite the presidential decree to curb state dominance.

The country has about 25,000 state-owned organizations. Many of them operate without logic, create bureaucracy, and inflate costs, the MP reminded.

In response to our complaints during the budget discussion, the Samruq-Qazyna Fund stated that from 2014 to 2024, they reduced the number of entities to 327 — but still maintain six levels of ownership. In 2021, they reduced management by only 22% — from 23,000 top managers to 18,000. No further reductions followed the liberalization decree,Peruashev said.

The MP posed a series of pointed questions to the government:

• How many organizations have been withdrawn from state participation?
  
• Which markets have been freed from state monopolies?
  
• How many managers have been dismissed?
  
• Have maintenance and administrative costs decreased?
  
• What are the dynamics of their contributions to the state budget?

Despite calls for efficiency, top managers continue to receive large bonuses. Peruashev cited the example of Kazakhtelecom, which reportedly paid 50 million tenge in bonuses.

He also referred to findings by the Supreme Audit Chamber:

According to the Supreme Audit Chamber, over the past five years, the quasi-public sector has paid only 12% of its profits into the budget, and the draft budget for 2026 plans to pay only 5%. Samruq, for example, can report on the spending of the remaining hundreds of billions after the fact, Peruashev added. 

Peruashev and his colleagues also criticized Social Entrepreneurial Corporations (SECs), calling them non-transparent and ineffective structures that operate without a proper legal framework.

The Aq Jol faction is demanding that the government:

• Develop a clear action plan for optimizing the quasi-public sector — including the liquidation of unnecessary subsidiaries and shell companies, and reducing corporate governance layers
  
• Draft a unified law on agricultural production cooperatives — defining legal status, responsibilities, and reporting mechanisms under local maslikhat supervision

Original Author: Ilya Astakhov