2.1 General definitions

In order to understand the Kazakhstan anticorruption laws and regulations (collectively referred to as “anticorruption regulations”) it is necessary to provide definitions of government officials, officers, and other persons to whom the anticorruption regulations apply.  Several categories of such persons are not limited to government/public sector and include private sector.

Although the theory recognizes division of law into private and public, the Kazakh legislation contains neither a definition of public sector, nor the word “public” in its vocabulary.

In our opinion, in defining the public sector for the purposes of identifying corruption acts one should proceed on the basis of the list of the persons that are authorized to perform State functions and the persons that are regarded as being vested with such responsibilities as stipulated in the legislation (all these persons are listed in clauses 2.2.1-2.2.2 of section 2 of this Overview).

Category of “Government officials” or GO (Rus. – “государственные служащие“) – a citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan holding, in accordance with the legally established procedure, an office in a governmental agency funded from the national budget or local budgets or from the funds of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan and performing official duties for the purposes of implementation of the objectives and functions of the State¹.

AEQUITAS Note: The term “government official” is not appropriate from a purely Kazakhstan law perspective, which uses the term “state servant” (gosudarstvennyi sluzhaschyi), subdividing the servants into administrative State servants and political State servants.²  However, for the purpose of unification with the possible terminology of this brochure we will be using the term “government official.”

The persons carrying out technical maintenance and ensuring the functioning of governmental agencies are not referred to as ‘government officials’. The list of such persons is established by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan.³

Category of “Officers” (Rus. – “должностные лица”) includes public and private sector.  In case of public sector this category includes persons that are permanently, temporarily or under a special authorization carrying out functions of a representative of authority or performing organizational-and-executive or administrative-and-economic functions in the governmental agencies, local self-administration bodies, as well as in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan or other troops or military formations of the Republic of Kazakhstan.⁴

A representative of a state authority is an official of a governmental agency granted, in accordance with the statutory procedure, regulatory powers with regard to persons who are not directly subordinate to him.⁵

Organizational-and-executive functions are the activities of persons carried out in order to exercise the powers of an executive body of an organization as set out by the legal and foundation documents.  These powers include general staff management, organization and control over the work of subordinates, as well as maintaining discipline.⁶

Administrative-and-economic functions are the activities carried out by persons vested with full material responsibility within the framework of their powers granted to manage and dispose of property, including money.⁷

2.2 List of persons subject to anticorruption regulations

The persons who would be held liable under corruption acts include government officials and several other categories stipulated by legislation.

According to Article 3 of the Law on Combating Corruption, persons who would be held liable for corruption offences (hereinafter - "Corruption Infringers") are:

2.2.1 Referred to persons authorized to perform state functions are:

• officers;
• deputies of Parliament and maslikhats (municipal councils);
• judges; and
• all government officials (GOs).

(We do not quote the list of positions of government officials and officers, because it contains more than a hundred items).

2.2.2 Deemed equivalent to persons authorized to perform state functions are:

• persons elected to local self-administration bodies;
• individuals registered in accordance with the statutory procedure as candidates for the office of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, candidates for deputies of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan and maslikhats, and for members of the elective local self-administration bodies;
• employees permanently or temporarily working at local self-administration bodies whose work is funded from the national budget of the Republic of Kazakhstan;
• persons performing managerial functions at State organizations and organizations in which the State has at least 35 per cent interest, as well as at organizations in which the State’s interest (not less than 35 per cent) is transferred to national managing holdings, national holdings, national development institutes, national companies, as well as to  subsidiaries of thereof.

2.2.3 Other entities

Corruption Infringers are also individuals and legal entities bribing officers or other persons authorized to perform State functions, or equivalent persons, as well as persons unlawfully providing them with property values and benefits.

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