The Supreme Audit Chamber of Kazakhstan has completed an audit of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Food Corporation and other institutions responsible for the country’s food security.
The audit was conducted at the Ministry of Agriculture, its committees and subordinate structures, specialized universities, the QazBioPharm national holding, as well as regional social and entrepreneurial corporations.
According to the Supreme Audit Chamber, the audit revealed many systemic problems that are hindering the development of the industry. Among them are the inconsistency of program documents, non-compliance with indicators for self-sufficiency in food products and weak control over food stocks. The level of self-sufficiency for key goods still does not reach 80%, and the calculations do not take into account physiological consumption standards.
In addition, the country still lacks a unified automated system for accounting and control of food reserves. Because of this, the state does not have accurate data on the availability and placement of food products.
The veterinary infrastructure also raises questions: 87% of laboratories are not accredited for compliance with international standards.
The audit also revealed violations in the purchase of veterinary drugs worth over 396 million tenge. In addition, it turned out that only 24 out of 101 border checkpoints are equipped with phytosanitary control equipment.
The auditors estimated the total amount of ineffective spending in the agricultural sector at 66.2 billion tenge. Another 179 million were planned to be spent just as inappropriately.
Only a small part was returned – 4.4 billion tenge, which is only 6.6% of the amount of ineffective spending identified.
