Criminal charges threaten those who repaired roads in Kazakhstan

According to the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructural Development of Kazakhstan, the agency launched criminal cases against people responsible for the repair of roads. The inspection of repaired roads across the country showed the poor quality of repair works in many regions. Almost 2,800 samples out of 9,000 turned out to be lower than the standard.

Among regions with the worst roads are the city of Shymkent (71%), the region of Mangystau (61%), the city of Almaty (56%), the East-Kazakhstan region (49%), the West-Kazakhstan region (43%) and the city of Turkestan (40%).

«Despite having a punch list of items those contractors continue to enter those bad roads into service. As a result, we have initiated the opening of criminal charges against such companies in several regions,» the ministry said.

In the region of Aktobe, for instance, the case with poor road repair works is being investigated by the regional Department of Economic Investigations. The Anti-Corruption Agency is doing the same in Shymkent.

President Tokayev has ordered the government to focus on the development of roads, which play an important role in such a massive country as Kazakhstan. However, some regions failed to do so. In the West-Kazakhstan region, for example, only 39% of roads meet the standard. The same rate for the entire country is 80% on average.