Kazakh business to face no illegal inspections

A computer program tracking all inspections of small and medium business by state authorities will be introduced on July 1, 2011, Tengrinews.kz reports. The initiative is part of anti-corruption efforts of the Kazakh government. It will help protect businesses from arbitrary behavior of authorities and ensure greater transparency of inspection operations. The software is officially called the Electronic Monitoring System for Citizens' Applications. Any businessman will be able to find out if the inspection is legal or not. Using a mobile phone or a computer one can check if the inspectors' visit is registered with the legal statistics authorities. “If there is no data on the inspection in the legal statistics authorities’ database, the businessman may deny access to any inspector. Financial police authorities will also have access to the electronic registration database. Our electronic system guarantees protection of businessmen' rights,” said Marat Akhmetzhanov, Chairman of the Legal Statistics and Special Records Committee of Kazakhstan General Prosecution Office. The project has already been tested in Astana and Almaty oblast. It will be officially presented in Shymkent, as there are around 125 thousand small and medium businesses in South Kazakhstan. 537 officials were arrested for corruption in Kazakhstan in 2010.