Kazakhstan's State Revenue Committee under the Ministry of Finance has identified five vulnerable areas in its own operations following an internal corruption risk assessment. These include access by freelance workers to the agency's information systems, overlapping powers among customs post employees, and the ability to artificially delay certain customs procedures. This was reported by infohub.kz.
The first risk involves employees hired under labor contracts. Their contracts did not always clearly define their duties or the persons responsible for overseeing their work. According to the State Revenue Committee, this created conditions for discretionary powers.
The second risk was found at customs posts. Despite the division of employees into sectors, their functional duties could overlap. For example, a passenger terminal employee had the rights of an employee handling transport or integrated control. The State Revenue Committee noted that as a result, an employee in one sector could make decisions on behalf of an employee in another, including in their own interests or those of third parties.
The third risk concerns information security. Freelance workers of state revenue bodies hired under labor contracts had access to the agency's information systems and resources. The State Revenue Committee said this violated technical documentation on information security. The committee recommended conducting an inventory of access rights and removing excessive permissions.
The fourth risk relates to customs examinations. The document states that investigations and courts established cases in which employees of the Central Customs Laboratory in Almaty colluded and received bribes for expedited examinations. To eliminate the risk, the State Revenue Committee proposed regulating the passage and recording of people, vehicles, and goods on the laboratory's premises, as well as considering the creation of a customs control zone.
The fifth risk concerns vehicles with expired temporary import periods. The State Revenue Committee found that the procedure and timelines for inspections in such cases were not regulated. As a result, employees of customs posts or the state revenue department could artificially delay sending requests or providing responses, which, according to the committee's assessment, created conditions for corruption offenses.
Based on the analysis, the committee developed a plan to eliminate the identified risks. It provided for amending the job descriptions of customs post employees, reviewing the access rights of freelance workers to information systems, and developing additional rules for customs procedures.
Separately, the State Revenue Committee planned to approve a technological scheme for the Central Customs Laboratory and create a customs control zone there. The deadline for this measure was set for December 2025.
Earlier, Kursiv reported that the National Security Committee uncovered more than 200 cases of corruption over two summer months.