Mazhilis deputy Bakytzhan Bazarbek has alleged embezzlement in tree planting across almost the entire country.
As reported by Lada.kz, the Mazhilis member reminded that, according to the President’s 2020 address, it was planned to plant 2 billion trees on forest fund lands and 15 million trees on populated area lands.
“I specifically decided to check where these trees are. I received responses from 15 or 16 regional akimats. I am in shock. We are short by nearly 3 million trees instead of 15 million; I’m not even talking about the billions,” the deputy stated.
According to the deputy’s data, hundreds of thousands of trees were not planted in Mangystau Region alone: in 2021, only 20,983 of the planned 556,000 trees were planted, and in 2022, only 21,000 of 167,000 were planted. In the East Kazakhstan Region, only 85,000 trees were planted in 2021 instead of 127,000.
“Every tree is money. And it’s like this in every region: somewhere 30, somewhere 50, somewhere 100-150 thousand trees were not planted. My question, as a deputy, to the Ministry of Ecology is: is anyone monitoring this, or do you just allocate money? <...> Why has not a single criminal case been opened over these facts, and has no one been held accountable?” the deputy questioned.
At the same time, Bakytzhan Bazarbek noted that funds were allocated in the Aktobe, Akmola, Atyrau, East Kazakhstan, West Kazakhstan, Karaganda, Turkistan, and Mangystau regions, as well as in the Zhetysu, Ulytau, and Abay regions, but the trees were never planted there.
In turn, Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Forestry and Wildlife Maksat Yelemesov stated that the regions failed to meet the plan due to underfunding.
“The fact is that the announced planned and actual figures indicate that the aforementioned akimats underfunded these types of work and did not fulfil the plan to plant 2 billion trees. In this regard, a letter was initiated in 2024 addressed to the head of state, and the deadline for fulfilling his instruction was extended to 2027. Currently, the akimats are increasing the volume of growing planting material and carrying out forest planting work,” Yelemesov reported.
Recall that in August 2023, journalist and agricultural expert Kirill Pavlov reported that the capital’s akimat was providing false statistics on the survival rate of green spaces in Astana. As a result, the budget is losing billions of tenge.
The expert noted that the akimat claims an inflated survival rate for seedlings – 90%. When asked what survival rate was forecast for the million plantings planned, the akimat gave a similar response.
In August 2024, deputy of the capital’s maslikhat Vladislav Sergeyev stated that in Astana, tens of billions of budget funds are being spent on planting trees and shrubs, but no record of them is being kept. He also recalled cases where trees are planted as compensation for those cut down, but they do not survive.