Mazhilis deputies have adopted a draft law on improving career patterns for Kazakhstan’s law enforcement agencies at the first reading.
Hence, applicants who are going to join local law enforcement services have to take part in a contest. In some cases, heads of regional police departments can hire an applicant out of the competition. However, all applicants should complete an internship before entering duty.
The draft law suggests canceling that internship for those employees who are appointed to senior positions through a contest. According to Aset Chindaliyev, deputy Attorney General of the country, it is common practice to promote to senior positions in the law enforcement agencies candidates with a high level of expertise and knowledge; therefore, an internship isn’t needed. However, the authorities are going to make a special examination for those who win the contest. The Attorney General Office believes that these amendments will facilitate the process of recruiting high-grade professionals.
The current legislation allows heads of the regional law enforcement departments to hire employees out of competition. The new legislation is going to pass this right solely to an agency’s headquarters.
Some requirements for candidates are going to be tightened. For example, to join a law enforcement agency, candidates have to prove they have at least threeyears’ work experience. Even for those who served in the army, there will be no exclusions and they have to take part in the contest along with other candidates.
On the other hand, if a current serviceman of force authorities is going to join any of the law enforcement agencies, he won’t be required to get a medical screening, a lie detector examination or testing.
The policy of promotion is going to be tightened as well. The current legislation allows the career promotion of a serviceman as an incentive six times in a row. The new draft law suggests doing so not more than twice.
Part of the amendments is a set of actions linked to the social protection of personnel. For instance, employees with a length of service of 20 years can buy out a house they received from the government for zero price. The same is applied to those with a length of service of 10 years if they have a disabled child. Moreover, if a serviceman has died while on duty, nobody can evict his family from a house they received from the government.
The draft law also restores the right to pension for those private and junior police servicemen who were denied this right as they quit the law enforcement system after several years of service and started to work in other fields.
During the Q&A session, the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Murat Baimukashev said that the new draft law will introduce one more novelty: the requirement for every police officer to be fluent in the Kazakh language. In August 2020, Kazakhstan also changed the recruiting process in the law enforcement system. Back then all candidates were required to complete the police academy.
