The Supreme Audit Chamber (SAC) presented the results of an inspection of the agricultural sector.
According to ORDA, the head of the agency, Alikhan Smailov, noted systemic problems that reduce the effectiveness of state support, despite significant budget expenditure.
"Over five years, around two trillion tenge has been allocated from the budget for subsidies. However, a number of systemic problems have resulted in their limited impact. First: shortcomings in strategic planning and a lack of continuity in the development of the sector. Over the last 10 years, the Ministry of Agriculture has adopted several policy documents. And most of them were not brought to their logical conclusion", said Smailov.
He emphasised that the frequent change of priorities hinders the establishment of an effective state support system, and distorted statistical data make it impossible to set clear targets. At the same time, Smailov drew attention to the fact that the subsidy system is far from perfect.
"The types and directions of subsidies are constantly changing. The mechanism for providing them has also changed during implementation. More than 70 changes in just five years. In some cases, the rules were adopted late. It has been over five years, and there are still no rules on subsidies for increasing the share of processing of domestic agricultural products, or for research and development work", the statement said.
He noted the lack of clear priorities for subsidies, which he said results in budget funds being spread thinly across a large number of areas in this field. According to him, under 17 areas, 67 types of subsidies are provided, but their effectiveness remains insignificant.
"According to expert estimates, subsidy needs in general are underfunded by half. Farmers also have to wait a long time for most subsidy payment applications to be processed. All this has led to 5 billion tenge in subsidies being paid to over 2,500 entities that ceased their activities before or after receiving the subsidies. Nearly three thousand subsidy recipients, receiving 5.4 billion tenge, were not even agricultural sector entities at all", added the head of the SAC.
Furthermore, Alikhan Smailov criticised the Gosagro.kz information system, which, he said, does not provide proper control over the justified allocation of subsidies.
"A significant portion of the violations identified by the audit could have been prevented. To do this, it is necessary to include appropriate format and logic checks and expand integrations with other state databases. However, we have to report payments of subsidies to entities that do not meet the subsidy conditions, as well as instances of double and inflated subsidisation", he noted.
However, the conclusions of the SAC were disputed by the Mazhilis Committee on Agriculture. Deputy Serik Yegizbayev called some of them incorrect.
"Subsidies are paid as compensation for costs incurred. The rules are the same for all farms regardless of their size. Those who incur the costs receive the subsidies. The conclusion about the ineffectiveness of subsidising poultry production also raises a question. We analysed the activities of a company in this sector that accounts for 50% of production on the domestic market. Thanks to state support measures, this company has increased its poultry production volume from 29 to 160 thousand tonnes over the past five years. At the same time, the total amount of tax paid to the budget and investments made in production exceeded the amount of subsidies received by almost four times", the Mazhilis member questioned.
In conclusion, Yegizbayev recommended that the SAC involve specialists with experience in agriculture in its inspections.
Recall that at the beginning of November, in the Almaty region, the head of the public association "Shanyrak", Almazbek Sadyrbay, was detained. He is suspected of creating fictitious agricultural cooperatives in the Balkhash, Enbekshikazakh, Kegen, Raiymbek and Uygur districts to illegally obtain subsidies for the insemination of breeding female small livestock, as well as to compensate for feed costs.