The Anti-Corruption Service has uncovered criminal schemes involving the embezzlement of funds from the payroll fund. Accountants exploited the lack of integration between school accounting systems, the national education database, and the ‘Treasury-Client’ system.
As the official representative of the Anti-Corruption Service, Daniyar Bigaidarov, stated at a briefing, they manually made adjustments to payment documents. Funds for embezzlement were already built in during the preparation of annual budget requests.
According to the Anti-Corruption Service, the embezzlement was carried out in the following ways:
- paying salaries above the established norm;
- making payments to unauthorised – affiliated – persons;
- making payments to one’s own card accounts using the details of third parties;
- duplicating money transfers; embezzlement by paying salaries to ‘dead souls’.
For example, it was reported that the Anti-Corruption Service of the Zhetysu region stopped the illegal activities of the chief accountant of the education department of the Sarkan district.
She is suspected of embezzling more than 1 billion tenge by illegally transferring salaries above the established norm to the accounts of the department’s accountants. During investigative actions, 156 million tenge was found on and seized from the suspect. She was remanded in custody by court order. The investigation continues.
Meanwhile, it has become known that in the Kyzylorda region, the head of the ‘Education Department of Zhanakorgan District’ B. Ibragimova, the chief accountant of the institution K. Ayazbayeva, and accountants from 24 schools were found guilty of embezzling more than 1 billion tenge.
As a result, the court sentenced the head of the institution and the chief accountant to 8 years in prison, and one of the school accountants to 7 years in prison with a 5-year suspension of the sentence due to having a minor child as a dependent. The convicted individuals were also permanently barred from holding positions in public service.