Kazakhstan - Governance and Service Delivery : A Diagnostic Report

The role, structure and capacity of the public sector are still evolving in Kazakhstan. Strengthening its performance can enhance the efficient allocation and management of public resources, diminish the cost of doing business, unleash private sector growth, and directly impact the accessibility of the population to basic services.This focus on the economic and social benefits of improving governance and service delivery - and of the consequences of not doing so - is therefore apposite. For the purposes of this report, corruption is defined as the abuse of public office for private gain.This diagnostic assessment is based on three sets of surveys of key groups in Kazakhstan. Four hundred enterprise managers and one thousand households were surveyed about their interactions with state bodies; their responses provide external assessments of the quality of the services provided by various government bodies, and about their experiences with corruption, from the perspective of the users of these services. Six hundred public officials were also surveyed, providing an insider's perspective, as well as self-evaluations of the quality of their work. The public officials' survey also highlights progress in implementation of reforms, such as competitive recruitment of civil servants, and provides information on the business culture of government offices. The three surveys complement each other. The surveys make it possible to identify links between performance and weaknesses in public administration. The rich tapestry of information provided by the survey respondents is a means to improve the delivery of basic public services by enhancing the transparency and accountability of state functioning.