Minister for Religious Affairs and Civil Society, Nurlan Yermekbayev made a report on the work of public councils at the Government meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev.

Within the framework of the "Nation's Plan – 100 concrete steps" to implement the five institutional reforms of the President, work is being done to strengthen the role of public councils in discussing the implementation of strategic plans and development programs for the territories; budgets, reports, achievement of target indicators, draft normative legal acts affecting the rights and freedoms of citizens; projects of program documents.

The consolidation of the status and powers of the public councils by law is aimed at increasing transparency in the adoption of state decisions.

The Minister noted that public councils have introduced monitoring of issues of concern to the population, as well as introduced a mechanism for examining draft laws and regulations concerning the rights, freedoms and duties of citizens.

"More than 9 thousand drafts of the regulatory act have been considered, and almost every tenth of them has been commented by council members. The reporting of heads of state bodies of all levels on the results of work was introduced. So, about 1300 heads of state bodies of all levels reported to members of public councils. More than 600 topical issues of citizens were brought to public hearings," Nurlan Yermekbayev said.

At the same time, the minister proposed a number of systemic measures for the further development of the institution of public councils.

"It is necessary to work out the issues of amending the current legislation on public councils on the procedures for electing, rotating, expanding the participation of representatives of the civil sector, as well as logistics and financing of certain aspects of their activities," the head of the MRACS said.

In addition, the Minister, at the suggestion of members of the public councils, asked to consider the issue of making an annual comprehensive report on the activities of public councils in Kazakhstan to the country's leadership.

At the same time, it is proposed to use the potential of public councils more actively in the process of developing and discussing draft decisions taken by state bodies, and also take measures to involve representatives of public councils from the civil sector (NGOs, business structures, citizens, experts) in discussing the most significant issues of industries.

As part of the consideration of the issue, the chairman of the Public Council for Work with Internal Affairs Bodies, the director of the Research Institute of Kazakh State Law University, Marat Kogamov, the chairman of the Public Council of Zhambyl Region, Zhandar Karibayev made speeches.

For reference: There are 229 public councils of various levels operating in Kazakhstan. At the republican level — 16 public councils, at the regional level — 213. More than 4,000 people participate in the activity of public councils, including more than 818 NGO representatives, 325 business structures, 512 branches of political parties, and also representatives of trade unions, media and other spheres.