Kazakhstan Offers Rewards For Corruption Whistle-Blowers

Officials in Kazakhstan say people could start receiving cash rewards for informing authorities about official corruption in the Central Asian country.

A spokesman for the Anticorruption Agency at the Kazakh Financial Police, Murat Zhumanbai, said a whistle-blowers bill approved by the government last month had come into force as of September 4.

The spokesman said the government was planning to allocate more than $213,000 each year for such rewards.

He said the size of rewards for whistle-blowers will range from $330 to $1,100, depending on the type of wrongdoing uncovered.

The rewards will only be paid in cases where officials are found guilty of corruption in a court.

According to the spokesman, it is the first bill of its kind among former Soviet states.

Based on reporting by KazTAG and Interfax