Bureaucrats Declare Incomes in Kazakhstan

When Kazakhstan passed a law on income declaration in an effort to combat corruption among state officials, observers patiently waited for the reporting period to end and, by 31 December 2025, read how much they and their spouses earned.

Starting from 2025, every year, state officials are required to report property, foreign assets, and bank accounts, as well as shares that were purchased or sold during the previous year.

In the past week, a few late declarations surfaced, but most ministries failed to publish their data on time.

Deputy Prime Minister and minister of economy Serik Zhumangarin’s spouse, Saniya Sadykova, earned 88.7 million tenge ($175,000) in 2024, most of it from investments in the securities market. Zhumangarin’s deputy, Asan Darbayev reported that his spouse’s income was 69.6 million tenge ($135,000).

Altai Kulginov, the former mayor of Astana, now Kazakhstan's ambassador to Estonia, reported no income for 2024. His wife, Zhanar Kelimbetova, declared earnings for 16.9 million tenge ($33,000). Most of the spouses of ambassadors reported earnings between a few thousand to a dozen million tenge.

Nurlan Zhakupov, Chairman of the Board of Samruk-Kazyna Fund, declared 806 million tenge ($1.6 million) in income for 2022-2024.

Presidential Administration

Five employees of the Presidential Administration also declared their spouses’ income for 2024. Gulnar Dossayeva, the wife of former Almaty mayor Yerbolat Dossayev, declared an income of 2.3 billion tenge ($4.5 million) for 2024. In the same period, Dossayev, who has served as deputy head of the Presidential Administration since last September, declared earning only 14 million tenge ($27,000).

Presidential aide Kuanyshbek Yeseikeyev did not report any income, while his wife reported income of 48.3 million tenge ($95,000), almost twice as much as the wife of Gizat Nurdauletov, Secretary of the Security Council, who in turn also reported zero income for 2024.

Several other public sector employees did not submit their declarations on time.

The obligation to declare income was the subject of criticism, because of the significant delay in reporting (incomes for 2024 were reported only at the end of 2025).

In addition, the absence of a detailed breakdown makes it difficult to assess the veracity of the declaration and the origin of the wealth.

It is widely known that politically exposed persons (PEPs) from Kazakhstan own property and assets abroad. In 2024, we unveiled a number of properties from the Dubai registry owned by Kazakhstan’s PEPs and their families.

Sign up for our English-language newsletter.