Kazakhstan is introducing sweeping changes to the regulation of private notaries. The reform aims to eliminate legislative gaps that allowed abuses and to fully digitize the notarial sphere, according to infohub.kz.
Under the new rules, the Ministry of Justice and its territorial divisions are officially empowered to conduct scheduled and unscheduled inspections of private notaries and notarial chambers. A key innovation is the immediate revocation of licenses for transferring an electronic digital signature (EDS) to an assistant or other third parties. Similar sanctions are provided for leaks of citizens' personal data, as well as for systematic delays in entering transaction information into the unified database.
In parallel, two important digital projects are being launched: the "Notarial Digital Archive" and a system for automatic distribution of executive writs. The latter mechanism means that the selection of a notary for a specific case will be done randomly, eliminating the possibility of collusion or bias.
All electronic documents will now be stored in the digital system indefinitely. If a notary's license is suspended or revoked, their archive will be immediately seized and transferred to another specialist to ensure continuity of work.
Additionally, restrictions have been introduced for heads of notarial chambers: they may now chair disciplinary commissions for only one term of four years.
It is worth noting that earlier, former deputy Bakytzhan Bazarbek accused representatives of the notarial community of trying to "cover up" violators. In turn, the head of the republican notarial chamber, Oleg Polumordvinov, admitted that some notaries have already lost their licenses after a presentation by the Prosecutor General's Office.