President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has abolished the system of annual performance assessment of ministries and akimats that had been in force since 2010. The previous rules provided for compiling rankings of state bodies and considering the responsibility of heads for poor performance results.
WHAT RULES WERE ABOLISHED
As Kursiv.media reports, Presidential Decree No. 1469 of 18 September 2026 came into force on 21 October 2026. The document abolished 33 provisions of previous presidential decrees regulating the assessment of the performance of state bodies.
The main one among them was Decree No. 954 of 19 March 2010, signed by Nursultan Nazarbayev. It established uniform rules for assessing ministries, regional akimats and administrations of cities of republican significance.
HOW OFFICIALS WERE ASSESSED
The system operated on an ongoing basis from 2011. The work of state bodies was assessed on the achievement of set goals, the quality of interaction with the public and the internal organisation of processes.
The final assessment consisted of three indicators:
- 45% — achievement of goals, fulfilment of plans and efficiency of budget funds use.
- 30% — quality of public services, consideration of citizens' appeals and openness of agencies.
- 25% — personnel management and use of information technologies.
The Supreme Audit Chamber (SAC) compiled the performance ranking of state bodies. The results were passed to a special commission and then to the President.
Low indicators could become grounds for considering the responsibility of a head. This concerned agencies that occupied the last three places in the ranking or demonstrated deteriorating results for three years in a row. The rules did not provide for automatic dismissal.
WHY THE SYSTEM WAS DECIDED TO BE REVISED
Back in September 2025, the SAC reported that nine formats for assessing state bodies were operating simultaneously in Kazakhstan. Some audits duplicated each other and did not provide a complete picture of management effectiveness.
Auditors proposed merging the approaches into a single system with four indices: achievement of goals, openness, digital development and service orientation.
Instead of comparing agencies with each other, it was proposed to track the progress of each state body relative to its previous results. Letter rankings from AAA to BBB, individual key performance indicators (KPIs) and conducting assessments three times a year were also discussed.
A separate proposal concerned personnel decisions in cases of low performance results for two years in a row.
WHAT CHANGED AFTER THE ABOLITION
From 21 October 2026, the previous rules for compiling rankings of ministries and akimats ceased to be in force. Along with them, provisions on considering the responsibility of heads on the basis of low assessments were abolished.
However, oversight of the effectiveness of state bodies has been retained. According to the Law of 23 July 2026, the SAC continues to assess the fulfilment of development plans and the achievement of budget programme indicators.
Approval of the new assessment rules was entrusted to the SAC in October 2026. At the same time, the published material does not specify which of the previously proposed changes were included in the final model.
