He believes professionals should deal with protection of public health

Administrative barriers and corruption risks in the application of sanitary norms and rules were discussed at the meeting of the Council on the protection of entrepreneurs' rights and anti-corruption of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs "Atameken", which was held in a videoconference format in the General Prosecutor's office.

"The analysis in the framework of the Roadmap "Supervision of public prosecution in the field of entrepreneurship", which was approved by the Prosecutor General Zhakipov Asanov and chairman of the Presidium of NCE "Atameken" Timur Kulibayev showed that over-regulation of the procedure and the conditions of production, sometimes even not related to security issues create unjustified restrictions to the normal development of entrepreneurship. This creates favorable conditions for the development of corruption risks ", - the moderator, the chairman of the Council on the protection of entrepreneurs' rights and anti-corruption of NCE RK "Atameken" Kairbek Suleimenov said opening the meeting.

Head of the 1st Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office Marat Seksembayev and director of the Department of public monitoring and work with administrative barriers of NCE RK "Atameken" Erbol Ustemirov told about problems in the field of sanitary and epidemiological supervision in the application of Sanitary Rules and Norms.

According to the Chairman of the Prosecutor General's Office, "bodies of consumer protection widely use practice of giving entrepreneurs obviously unrealistic requirements for non-performance of which there is administrative liability under Part 3 of art.462 CAO (fine 100 MCI). There are facts of illegal requirements; they are often blurred and indistinct. There are cases of conducting audits with violations of the rule of law. There were revealed facts of the claim of unnecessary documents in the provision of public services.

During the discussion, the Council stated that the bodies of consumer protection widely use practice of giving to entrepreneurs obviously impracticable or illegal prescriptions. Separate sanitary norms contain sometimes absurd demands, which it was suggested to eliminate.

As it was noted by the members of the Council on the protection of entrepreneurs' rights and anti-corruption, most of inspections are carried out in the country by the Committee on Consumer Protection. The majority of businessmen subjected to audits, met the requirements. Experience has shown a significant number of abuses and red tape in the actions of sanitary and epidemiological surveillance.

The Acting Chairman of the Committee on Consumer Protection of the Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan Zhandarbek Bekshin, speaking at the meeting, pointed out that the policy on the checklist in recent years has changed three times. A lot of time is spent on their redoing. "112 checklists were developed in 2014, in 2015 they were amalgamated into a single checklist. In 2016, 45 new checklists were designed with preservation of requirements, the violation of which poses a threat to human life and health. This work is carried out by the Working Group with the participation of experts of NCE "Atameken", the Interdepartmental Commission on Entrepreneurship under the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan. We believe in the future we will have no longer to process them and to put at risk the population due to the lack of control over checklists", - he said.

Bekshin added that in 2015 for the first time in the practice of sanitary and epidemiological surveillance were introduced new forms of work - cameral control and selection of products to monitor the safety of products without interference in business activities, and risk assessment techniques.

As it was summarized by Kairbek Suleimenov, today's discussion has highlighted in the activities of sanitary-epidemiological control serious legal and organizational problems that create barriers to the development of entrepreneurship and involve corruption risks.

"Most of the inspections in the country are carried out by the Committee on Consumer Protection. The majority of businessmen subjected to checks, meet the requirements. Experience has shown a significant number of abuses and red tape in the actions of sanitary and epidemiological surveillance, about what the speakers talked and it is noted in the query. We should raise the question of responsibility of officials for actions that do not correspond to the country's ongoing policy of the President with regard to the creation of favorable conditions for business development", - said Kairbek Suleimenov.

The head of the Council also raised the question of the need for transfer of sanitary and epidemiological control to the public health system. "The cobbler should mend boots, and the baker - bake bread! Doctors must deal with Protection of public health, preventive and anti-epidemic work. Moreover, I would consider useful for the case to raise the head of the service to the rank of deputy minister, as it was 10-15 years ago in good Soviet times", - said K. Suleymenov. According to him, the reasons for the crisis of the state sanitary-epidemiological norms is the lack of science-based support, so it is important to involve in this work, not only practitioners and researchers of the health system.

Chairman of the Board also stressed that "the situation is aggravated and frankly there is punitive focus of laws". "Analysis of administrative affairs in this sphere has shown that excessively harsh and disproportionate penalties for minor breaches of businessman pushing to resolve the conflict situation in the field of corruption", - he said.

According to Deputy Prosecutor General Andrei Kravchenko, regional prosecutors together with regional chambers of entrepreneurs carry out a series of measures to reduce corruption risks in the field of sanitary and epidemiological surveillance.

Following the meeting the Council on the protection of entrepreneurs' rights and anti-corruption concluded that the sanitary and epidemiological control and supervision of the application of sanitary rules and norms has systemic problems in the areas of legal regulation and organization of control, which create administrative barriers to business and do not contribute to the elimination of corruption processes in this domain.

The Ministry of National Economy was recommended to conduct an internal review of corruption risks in order to identify and to eliminate the causes and conditions that facilitate the commission of corruption offenses by Committee on Consumer Protection during the control and surveillance of consumers in the field of sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population.

The Committee on Consumer Protection was requested to monitor and prepare amendments to the existing sanitary norms and rules.

Regional Chamber of Entrepreneurs were proposed to organize a special meeting of citizens with the territorial subdivisions of the Committee on Consumer Protection and other relevant executive bodies on the issues of sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population to promptly solve the problematic issues.