The Supreme Audit Chamber (SAC) refused to provide audit reports on 15 entities within the agro-industrial complex (AIC), including the Ministry of Agriculture. Agricultural expert and founder of the FBRC, Kirill Pavlov, submitted an official request on 5 November, but instead of specific documents, he only received general conclusions about problems in the sector. After all set deadlines had passed, Pavlov filed a complaint against the department's actions.
The list of requested organisations included key entities of the agro-industrial complex: the Ministry of Agriculture, JSC "Food Contract Corporation", the veterinary control and state inspection committees in the AIC, the National Agrarian Scientific and Educational Centre, the holding "QazBioPharm", as well as four social-entrepreneurial corporations (SECs) — "Soltüstik", "Kokshe", "Tobol" and "Pavlodar".
Furthermore, the request included several research institutes and centres working in the fields of processing, crop production and the commercialisation of agricultural technologies.
“What is the SAC hiding in the AIC? On 5 November, I sent a request to the Supreme Audit Chamber — asking them to provide audit reports on 15 entities. In response, they wrote that everything is bad. But they didn't give the results,” wrote Kirill Pavlov on his Telegram channel “Kazakh Chuvash”.
Instead of the requested documents, the SAC provided a general summary of the state of the agro-industrial complex. According to the Bureau of National Statistics, the volume of agricultural output in 2024 amounted to 8.3 trillion tenge, which is 9% higher than the figures for 2023. Gross crop production reached 5 trillion tenge (60.2%), and livestock production — 3.2 trillion tenge (39.6%).
At the same time, the department’s response states that the state audit identified a number of problematic factors hindering the development of the AIC. These include inconsistencies between programme documents for development, non-compliance with self-sufficiency indicators, and insufficient monitoring of food reserves. The level of self-sufficiency for key products still does not reach 80%, and the calculation method used does not take into account physiological consumption norms.
Serious shortcomings were noted in the field of veterinary and phytosanitary safety. More than 87% of veterinary laboratories are not accredited to international standards. 24 border checkpoints out of 101 have yet to be equipped with phytosanitary control.
A separate problem is the low rate of increasing the knowledge intensity of agriculture. As of 2023, this figure was only 0.26% of GDP. Insufficient implementation of research results into practice is holding back the modernisation of the sector.
“The republic still has not implemented an automated system for accounting and controlling food reserves, which leads to unreliable data on the availability and movement of such goods,” the SAC’s letter states.
However, the specific audit results that could shed light on the situation in each of the inspected organisations were not provided.
“I filed a complaint against the SAC, of course. But it’s interesting what they are hiding and why they are in no hurry to release the reports — all deadlines are now passing,” Pavlov summarised.
The expert notes that the department is effectively evading the provision of information, even though it is obliged to disclose the results of inspections upon official requests. The lack of transparency in the work of the oversight bodies raises questions about the real state of affairs in the agro-industrial complex and the effectiveness of spending budget funds in this area.
Meanwhile, the SAC previously published the results of audits of other social-entrepreneurial corporations. The audit uncovered financial violations totalling 138 billion tenge.
In particular, SEC "Ertis" carried out commercial housing construction under the guise of investment projects, with violations amounting to 3.3 billion tenge; SEC "Aktobe" granted a loan of 11.2 billion tenge to one company without collateral and with an affiliated person on the selection committee; and SEC "Semey" selected projects without risk analysis. Auditors referred materials on 14 instances of violations to law enforcement agencies.