The Supreme Audit Chamber conducted an audit in the field of agricultural subsidies. The main results of the audit were announced during the meeting of the Mazhilis by the Chairman of the Supreme Audit Chamber Alikhan Smailov.
"We need to revise the list of subsidies, maximizing the effect of the allocated funds, which are aimed at implementing the strategic documents of the industry. Subsidies should create incentives for increasing productivity and introducing advanced agricultural technologies," Smailov said.
He noted the need to expand the opportunities for lending to industry entities, insurance and other support tools.
"For example, to provide guarantees from state development institutions in the absence or insufficiency of collateral from the farmer. It is necessary to accelerate the introduction of the Gosagro.kz platform into industrial operation with expanded integration with other state systems. The effect in the form of transparency in the distribution of subsidies and a reduction in the bureaucratic burden due to digitalization is obvious," the head of the Supreme Audit Chamber believes.
According to him, about 2 trillion tenge were allocated from the budget for subsidies over 5 years. There are a number of systemic problems in the sector, which have led to a limited effect of subsidies.
“Over the past 10 years, the Ministry of Agriculture has adopted several program documents. And most of them were not brought to a logical conclusion. All of them were put on hold ahead of schedule, halfway through their implementation. Priorities were constantly changing. This prevented the construction of an effective system of state support for the industry. And distorted statistical data had a negative impact on the development of clear guidelines. As a result, individual target indicators were recognized as overly ambitious and were eventually adjusted downwards. But even this did not ensure the successful implementation of more than 40% of the target indicators of the Concept for the Development of the Agro-Industrial Complex,” Smailov said.
He noted that the types, areas of subsidies, as well as the mechanism for their provision, are constantly changing. VAP has established more than 70 changes in just 5 years.
“There are no clear priorities for subsidies. This contributes to the dispersion of funds across a large number of areas of subsidies. 67 types of subsidies are provided in 17 areas, but their effectiveness remains insignificant. In addition, specific target indicators have not been defined. According to experts, due to the dispersion of support in some areas, the subsidy needs as a whole are underfunded by half,” said the head of the VAP.
He also said that there is a long (up to two years) wait for the execution of most applications for subsidy payments.
“There is no assessment of recipients. All this led to the payment of 5 billion tenge in subsidies to more than 2.5 thousand entities that ceased their activities before or after receiving the subsidies. Almost 3 thousand recipients of subsidies for 5.4 billion tenge were not entities of the agro-industrial complex at all. Under such conditions, it is impossible to talk about the effectiveness of subsidies,” said Smailov.
He reported that the audit revealed 142 billion tenge of ineffective planning and use of budget funds, 2 billion tenge of financial violations.
"Economic losses and lost profits are estimated at 5 billion tenge. Almost 2 billion tenge were reimbursed and restored to the budget. Materials on 4 facts were transferred to law enforcement agencies, 322 materials were sent for administrative liability. All proposals of the Mazhilis Committee on Agrarian Issues were taken into account in recommendations to the government and instructions to state bodies," the VAP Chairman concluded.