Over 66 Billion Tenge Spent Inefficiently on Agriculture in Kazakhstan

The Supreme Audit Chamber has released the results of inspections into the Ministry of Agriculture, the Food Corporation, and other agencies responsible for the country’s food security — and the findings are concerning, Orda.kz reports.

According to the Chamber, the inspections covered the Ministry of Agriculture, its committees and affiliated organizations, as well as specialized universities, the national holding QazBioPharm, and regional agricultural production cooperatives.

This sector involves massive sums of money — according to the Bureau of National Statistics (BNS), Kazakhstan's farmers produced goods worth a total of 8.3 trillion tenge last year.

The state audit revealed several key issues hindering the development of the country's agro-industrial complex. These include inconsistencies across development program documents, failure to meet self-sufficiency targets, and weak monitoring of food reserves. Self-sufficiency levels for essential products remain below 80%, and the current calculation method does not account for physiological consumption standards, the Chamber noted.

Kazakhstan still lacks an automated system for tracking and managing food reserves — making the available data on food stocks and their distribution unreliable. Veterinary laboratories are also a major concern — 87% of them have not been accredited to meet international standards.

In total, auditors calculated that 66.2 billion tenge was spent inefficiently in the agricultural sector. An additional 179 million tenge was earmarked for similarly ineffective purchases.

Some of the misused funds have been recovered — but only a small fraction: 6.6% of the total.

The Audit subject took measures, resulting in 4.4 billion tenge being reimbursed to state assets, the Chamber reported.

Original Author: Nikita Drobny