Stronger efforts are needed to address corruption, particularly at a high level, as reflected in the OECD's recently published assessments of five Central-Asian countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
The reports show that most of these countries have anti-corruption strategies in place. Mongolia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan have enhanced the transparency of public procurement; Kazakhstan has implemented measures to improve business integrity, and Mongolia has significantly reformed its judiciary in line with international standards. However, overall progress in fighting corruption in these countries is limited, anti-corruption reforms are stagnating, and some countries, such as Kyrgyzstan, have moved backwards on several aspects.
Conflict-of-interest and asset and interest disclosure regulations are lacking or have been ineffective. Uzbekistan has recently adopted a law in this area and its efficacy will be assessed in the future. In Kazakhstan, the asset declaration system is tied to tax returns, which does not achieve the goals of preventing corruption and detecting both conflicts of interest and illicit enrichment. Mongolia has put in place an asset declaration system; however, it is fragmented and lacks transparency, limiting public scrutiny.
All five countries are yet to introduce legal and institutional frameworks for much needed whistleblower protection, especially with respect to restricted civic space. The OECD reiterates that a strong civil society is of central importance to the region's anti-corruption reform efforts.
The level of enforcement of corruption offences is average to low in the assessed countries. Only Mongolia provides for criminal liability of legal persons for corruption offences and enforces it in practice, but there are gaps vis-a-vis international standards. All five countries need to concretely strengthen the independence of the judiciary, prosecution service and anti-corruption bodies to ensure stronger enforcement of corruption offences and tackle high-level corruption.
