The Economic Crime and Cooperation Division of the Council of Europe, in the framework of the Action on Promoting Transparency and Action against Economic Crime in Kazakhstan (CA TAEC), organised three consecutive workshops on the Liability of Legal Entities, and Codes of Ethics and Conflict of Interests in the Public Sector in Astana between 30 January and 1 February 2024. 

Following the workshops on the implementation of the GRECO^* recommendations in June 2023, the Anti-corruption Agency of Kazakhstan (ACA) requested further assistance to advance in three selected areas of anti-corruption and to further support the needed compliance with GRECO recommendations. 

Workshops’ participants included 52 representatives from the ACA, the Ministries of Internal Affairs, Justice, and Labor and Social Protection, the Agency for Civil Service Affairs, the General Prosecutor’s Office, and the National Security Committee. The workshops provided a platform to learn about international standards and best practices in other jurisdictions. Moreover, they allowed to discuss the encountered challenges in preventing corruption in public administration and taking measures which aim that legal persons are not being used as shields for corruption. The participants were also supported with interactive practical work based on case studies on priority themes identified among GRECO recommendations such as corporate liability, the use of codes of ethics in the public service, and asset disclosure and conflict of interests. 

This activity was organised by the Action on “Promoting Transparency and Action against Economic Crime” of the Central Asia Rule of Law Programme 2020-2023, a joint initiative co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the latter.

^* As part of its efforts to combat corruption, the Republic of Kazakhstan joined the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) in January 2020. GRECO adopted the Joint First and Second Round Evaluation Report on Kazakhstan in 2022 which includes 27 recommendations aiming at improving the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures. Following the GRECO report, CA TAEC agreed with ACA on an Action Plan to support the authorities in several of 27 specific recommendations from the report.