Kazakhstan, Astana, Sept. 14 / Trend D. Mukhatrov /
The illegal turnover of oil and oil products in Kazakhstan causes significant damage to the economic interests of the country and poses a serious threat to its environmental safety, Kazakh Attorney General Askhat Daulbaev said during the meeting of the Coordination Council under the Attorney General's Office, the Kazakh Prosecutor General's Office reported on Friday.
"The results of the checks conducted by the General Prosecutor's Office in the law testify to the number of crimes," he said.
The members of the Coordinating Council, MPs, heads of the National Security Committee, the Agency for Combating Economic Crimes and Corruption, the Kazakh Interior Ministry, the Oil and Gas Ministry, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Transport and Communications attended the meeting.
According to the report, the prosecutors revealed several problematic issues related to the volume of extracted raw materials and its turnover. This contributes to the growth of the shadow turnover of oil products. The activity of the relevant ministry is insufficiently effective. The work of law enforcement and tax bodies in revealing and investigating the crimes in this sphere causes serious concern.
"The lack of a clear and authentic monitoring of production and sale of raw material has led to the fact that significant volumes of oil and oil products become the subjects of profit for criminal groups, while they could be additional significant reserves for supplementing the republic's budget. In particular, over 33,000 tons of oil which was sent to the main processing plants from the large subsoil users such as CNPC-Aktobe-MunaiGas JSC, Kazakhmys Petroleum LLP and others, was unaccounted for in 2011-2012. In addition, over 168,000 tons of raw material mined in Kazakh fields was reflected neither in export flows, nor in refineries' reports," the report said.
Around 37 illegal connections were fixed on Kazakhstan's oil pipelines in 2012 and 23 criminal cases have begun.
The members of the Coordinating Council noted that the main preconditions for offenses and crimes is the poor condition of the state regulation of oil and oil products, the lack of institutional control and the required interaction between law enforcement agencies and the authorized structures for struggling against oil theft.
As a result of the detailed analysis of the situation, discussion of the ways of solving the problems, the Coordinating Council of Kazakhstan's General Prosecutor's Office developed concrete proposals and recommendations aimed at tightening the state control over oil production, strengthening the interaction of the interested state agencies, creation of effective warning mechanisms, detection and prevention of crimes related to oil and oil products' theft.