Anti-Corruption Coalition Shines a Light on State Procurement in Kazakhstan

Despite ongoing government reforms, corruption and inefficient spending are pervasive in Kazakhstan’s public procurement ecosystem. To promote public participation in procurement monitoring, in 2015, Kazakhstan launched an electronic platform with open access to state purchasing processes. The move was lauded as a significant step toward government transparency and improved efficiency. Nevertheless, few independent civic organizations or individuals have the information or hard skills to track contracting effectively.

To fill this gap and bolster the country’s transformation, a team of procurement professionals created Kun Jarygy (“Sunlight” in Kazakh) in the summer of 2022. This coalition of 23 NGOs and 32 experts monitors state spending across Kazakhstan. Launched with support from Eurasia Foundation’s Social Innovation in Central Asia (SICA) program and global transparency watchdog Open Contracting Partnership, the coalition quickly began shining a light on problematic procurement practices.

“A key aspect of public monitoring is ensuring that citizens, as the ultimate beneficiaries of state expenditures, receive high-quality goods and services at reasonable prices,” says Nurgali Rakhmanov, a co-founder and an active member of the coalition. “Our mission now is to educate them on how to monitor public spending effectively to ensure they receive [these] quality services for their taxes.”

Nurgali gained experience in public procurement while working as a business development specialist for various international enterprises. After years in this sector, he discovered SICA’s Policy Research School and realized he was ready for a career change.

SICA’s Policy Research School helps changemakers leverage their professional expertise to improve public procurement processes. “The program offered hands-on practical tools for tracking public spending, implementing research projects, minimizing safety risks, and offering constructive recommendations on public policy,” Nurgali says. “As I was learning to analyze procurement from the perspective of a watchdog, I realized that I wanted to keep developing in this sphere.”

The idea of an umbrella organization to support NGOs working on state recruitment—what would become Kun Jarygy—was born in a casual WhatsApp chat among classmates. “Then, in May 2022, when SICA announced a new grant competition, four of us from the chat—Aida Bapakhova, Ruslan Asaubayev, Abai Myrkhin, and I—joined forces to propose the establishment of the coalition. This is how our journey began,” Nurgali says, smiling.

Within months, the newly founded coalition was working with 25 NGOs and had become a hub for civic activists working in the sphere. The team launched a free webinar series on public monitoring of state procurement. Webinars attracted a diverse audience, including government procurement representatives. One participant, Bauyrzhan Zaki Akhmetzhan, took what he learned and hosted an additional in-person state procurement course for 16 civic activists in August 2023 in his native Uralsk.

The founders’ diverse professional experiences have propelled the project’s success. Co-founder Aida Bapakhova is a former project director of egov.kz, Kazakhstan’s premier digital platform for government e-services. In January 2024, under Aida’s leadership, Kun Jarygy launched ProZakup.kz, a website guide to Kazakhstan’s regulatory environment. ProZakup has become a model online platform in Central Asia for support and education to civic activists and NGOs working on state procurement.

“One particular victory for us is the fact that coalition members are exchanging and leveraging their practical experience [to amplify outcomes],” notes Aida. “Recently, Nurgali’s public foundation conducted a study on school construction spending and shared findings his with our group. Bauyrzhan, another member of the coalition, then utilized Nurgali’s methods for his own research. We learn from each other and grow as a team.”

The coalition is a prime example of how the civic sector can cooperate with government bodies to champion transparent spending. In just one year, members of Kun Jarygy have monitored 1,222 tenders worth 346 billion KZT (725 million USD). Within these, they identified 270 purchases with violations and sent 89 complaints to government agencies, which resulted in the opening of 5 criminal cases and 11.4 million KZT (24,000 USD) returned to the state budget.

Moving forward, Kun Jarygy is focused on solidifying partnerships with government agencies to develop robust public oversight, enhance transparency, and strengthen procurement officers’ skills. Aida is confident that the coalition emerged at the right time. “Civic activists, NGOs, and bloggers across the country monitor state procurement, but many lack the capacity to develop full-scale research or do it systemically,” she says. “We needed a body that would effectively pool [these actors’] limited resources to promote the transparency of state procurement, ultimately saving their efforts. Kun Jarygy is that body.”