On May 4, a meeting of the NCE Council for the Protection of Entrepreneurs Rights and Counteracting Corruption, chaired by Kairbek Suleimenov, was held in Atameken.   

"Today, the sphere of land relations is one of the most corrupted. According to the research, corruption in the control over the implementation of land legislation outstripped such areas as taxation, customs administration and public procurement," - the head of the Council, Kairbek Suleimenov pointed out. 

An expert group was established to study complaints and problems at the Atameken site. Together with the Committee for Land Management of the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan, the Agency for Civil Service and Countering Corruption and other interested bodies, it studied the issue comprehensively.
As noted by the Chairman of the Audit Committee of the "Atameken" NCE RK Nurlan Kudaibergenov, in the year of 2017, 150 crimes were revealed in the sphere of land relations; in 2016 this figure was equal to 225. Bribery, fraud and abuse of office are predominant. The greatest number of corruption crimes is observed in Mangistau - 50, Zhambyl - 42 and Pavlodar - 22 regions.

"The reasons contributing to the commission of corruption offenses are due to the fact that local executive bodies didn't provide open access to information on the availability of free land plots, on the compliance with reception priority. Officials deliberately, for selfish purposes, distort information on the availability of free land," - Nurlan Kudaibergenov said. 

Administrative barriers and corruption risks are flourishing, due to imperfections in the allocation of land. The entrepreneur Malika Yudjisi from Mangistau region has been struggling for the right to use the land for 11 years. In 2006, the woman bought a plot of 10 hectares in Aktau for the construction of a cottage town. The family spent more than $ 1 million to produce two PHPs. Immediately, problems began with the re-registration of the special-purpose designation, and criminal proceedings were initiated against the businessman. In 2008, the entrepreneur began to appeal to all officials. After the inquiries, all criminal cases concerning the businessman- 13 pieces, were terminated in the absence of corpus delicti. However, this did not help, the businessman was arrested for 7 months, without filing accusation against her. There was only a demand to abandon the land. Today, thanks to the work of the NCE RK "Atameken", Malika's problem has almost been solved.

"The last step remains. We need to wait until the Department for land resources control discontinues the supervision. We will immediately begin construction works, as we have an investor for a year," - Malika Yudjisi shared her opinion. 

Unjustified use of the status of a monopolist by the subdivisions of the NJSC State Corporation "Government for Citizens" in certain regions made it possible to unjustifiably transfer activities related to land management to the status of a state monopoly, also competition in commodity markets for the provision of land management works was limited.

Businessman Vitaly Tolkachev started the business in 1997. The company rented land from Almaty akimat for 17 years. Subsequently, he decided to buy the land in installments for 3 years.

"We got permission from the akimat, signed a purchase-sale agreement and applied to the Land Relations Department (LRD) with a letter of encumbrance. Here we faced with the fact that we have to pay 8 million and a fine," - the entrepreneur said.

The enterprise filed a lawsuit to the court, confirming it with documentary evidence of the purchase of the site. In response, the LRD made a retaliatory claim for a total of KZT 10 mln.

"We were surprised that they did not have a single document, and the court took the side of the LRD," - explained Tolkachev.

This is not the only case in Almaty when instead of developing business entrepreneurs defend their plots in court. 

"We really have shortcomings, now we are undertaking measures. For today, 63 officials, who violated the law, were brought to responsibility. For the current year, more than 2 thousand violations were detected in the transfer of land. More than 1 thousand were issued for private housing projects without a queue, as well as 8 rural land were allocated in private ownership," - the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Republic of Kazakhstan Marat Akhmetzhanov said. 

During the meeting, participants identified 3 main problems: weak state control, lack of monitoring of use and segmentation, lack of transparency in the provision of land.  

The Chairman of the Committee for Land Management of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan discussed the controversial issues and reported on the work done to prevent the facts of illegal actions of state bodies. 

"We need to significantly strengthen the committee on land management in order to really influence the processes that occur when using land," - Kairbek Suleimenov summed up the results of the discussions.

All the participants of the meeting received a draft decision in which Atameken sent recommendations to the authorized state bodies on consideration of the possibility of strengthening the legal aspect of the issue, and also to modernize the system of regulation and control in land relations.