Tokayev also set the task of reforming Samruk-Kazyna, which is now a cumbersome structure with characteristic opacity and the appointment of “politically significant people” to key posts.
He discussed the need for reforms with the head of Samruk-Kazyna, Almasadam Satkaliyev. “If it fails to cope with the task of reforming, it will go into oblivion, and with it the fund itself,” the president promised.
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January 17, press secretary of Tokayev Berik Uali informedthat the head of state is in favor of intensifying work on the privatization of the fund’s assets in order to reduce the excessive presence of the state in the economy.
Tokayev announced the need for a deep transformation of the fund’s activities during a speech in parliament on January 11. “The President believes that the government should first of all reduce the cumbersome management superstructure,” the spokesman explained.
The company associated with the daughter of Nazarbayev was deprived of utility payments
The National Welfare Fund “Samruk-Kazyna” was established in 2008 by decree of the current President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The sole shareholder of the fund is the government of Kazakhstan.
Management Council of Samruk-Kazyna leads Nazarbaev. Through this fund, he continues to control the “commanding heights” in the economy, said Alexei Makarkin, an expert at the Center for Political Technologies.
The fund’s portfolio companies include Air Astana, the oil and gas company KazMunayGas, Kazatomprom and Kazakhstan Railways. Fund assets constitute about $69 billion.
Organized Crime and Corruption Research Center (OCCRP) formerly wrotethat Nazarbayev manages assets worth at least $8 billion. The authors of the investigation claim that as head of state, Nazarbayev founded charitable foundations with non-transparent reporting, the Nazarbayev Fund, the Nursultan Nazarbayev Fund, the Demeu Fund and the Elbasy Fund. Journalists claim that he continues to secretly manage them until now.
Among the assets owned by the funds are banks, TV channels, hotels, shopping centers, factories, warehouses, a private jet worth more than $100 million, and bonds. The investigation explains that the assets do not formally belong to Nazarbayev, but he controls them as the founder of these organizations.
Protests broke out in Kazakhstan at the beginning of the year due to a sharp rise in the price of liquefied gas for refueling cars. A few days later, they turned into riots. On January 5, Tokayev announced the removal of Nazarbayev from the post of head of the Security Council of Kazakhstan.
On January 11, the president noted that during Nazarbayev’s presidency in Kazakhstan, “a group of very profitable companies and a layer of rich people appeared, even by international standards.” Tokayev pointed out that the time had come for them to “pay tribute” to the people, and proposed the creation of a “People of Kazakhstan” fund for regular contributions.
After the riots were suppressed, Nazarbayev’s sons-in-law left their posts in state-owned companies: Dimash Dosanov, chairman of the board of KazTransOil JSC, Kairat Sharipbayev, chairman of the board of QazaqGaz National Company JSC, and Timur Kulibayev, head of the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs.
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