KZBlog

In another part of the President’s speech yesterday he noted that gift-giving is something that has to stop. Nursultan Nazarbayev noted that there is no budget item for gifts for fellow civil servants and threatened to report people who give too many gifts:
Gazeta.kz quotes the President:

Accounts Committee, regularly reports to me about the most serious violations. People buy expensive cars, expensive electronic devices and begin to furnish their offices, buying expensive furniture. It’s a waste of everything. Making gifts on anniversaries. We have “юбилейщиков” [My understanding of this coinage is that he means someone obsessed with giving gifts for special occasions] growing in Kazakhstan; they all go out, all go look around, looking for who gave what to whom…Let us all learn to live within its means. The crisis was supposed to teach us something

He also mentioned his own 70th birthday which is this year, on the 6th of July, saying that there should be no gifts to him personally:

There will be no anniversary for the President…If someone starts making 70 of anything for my 70th year, I’ll fire him…There are no preparations, it will be a typical holiday, Astana Day [the 12th anniversary of the founding of Astana as capital]. It is better to prepare for a 20-year anniversary of Kazakhstan. No gifts for me…

His announcement follows after several new measures last year on the war on corruption and also a few other world leaders rejecting gifts. For example, the recent appointment of the Vice President of Nigeria to Acting President, was followed by the Vice President refusing any congratulatory gifts, cards or even newspaper announcements. It also follows rumors that mega-projects like Khan Shatyr and the New University of Astana have been delayed so that they can be opened on the 70th birthday of the President.