Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev criticized government agencies for irrational spending on digitalization during an expanded government meeting Feb. 10. The head of state called for the creation of a unified digital platform without requesting «huge sums of money» from the state budget.
According to Tokayev, the lack of unified oversight has led government agencies to pursue digitalization independently. This has created technical difficulties and resulted in reckless spending.
No funding for fragmented systems
At a meeting at the Prosecutor General’s Office, a representative of the cabinet of ministers announced the amount needed to integrate disparate IT systems into the unified QazTech platform, but Tokayev said such funding would not be allocated.
«Let me say right away: There is no such money, and there cannot be,» Tokayev said. «As one illustrious construction official said, ‘Even a fool can build something with money, but accomplishing this task without money is a skill.’ So show us your skill.»
Call for a unified platform
The president emphasized that the practice of creating problems and then solving them with large-scale government investment is unacceptable. He said the government must present a plan to transition to a unified platform that does not require significant budgetary spending.
Tokayev concluded that the practice of constantly waiting for new investments to correct past mistakes must stop.
