Kazakhstan Finance Ministry lets state IT firm use AI for budget data

September 21, 2026 at 03:35 PM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

Kazakhstan's Finance Ministry has authorized state IT monopoly Center for Electronic Finance (CEF) to process and analyze budget data using artificial intelligence and APIs, according to an order published September 14. The order was signed September 8, five days after the ministry approved new tariffs for CEF. The move comes after a state audit found systemic violations at CEF, including cases referred for criminal prosecution.

Key Facts

The Finance Ministry's order No. 609, signed September 8 and published September 14, expands CEF's permitted activities to include AI-based processing and analysis of budget data.
The order came five days after the ministry approved new hourly tariffs for CEF: 12,083 tenge in 2026 and 10,606 tenge in 2027.
A Supreme Audit Chamber inspection of CEF, the Finance Ministry, and contractor Q19 for 2020–2024 found financial violations totaling 566 million tenge and ineffective use of 764 million tenge.
Three audit episodes were referred to criminal prosecution authorities, including a contractor starting work before a tender was announced and a 17 million tenge seminar paid under a backdated contract.
The Finance Ministry was ordered to return 457.8 million tenge to the budget and CEF 108.3 million tenge by December 31, 2026.

The New Order

The Finance Ministry's order No. 609, signed September 8 and officially published September 14, expands the list of activities for CEF, the monopoly in budget process digitalization. The order permits CEF to process and analyze budget data, including forecasting, using artificial intelligence and APIs. The order was issued five days after the ministry approved new tariffs for CEF under order No. 603 of September 3. The new tariffs set an hourly rate of 12,083 tenge in 2026 and 10,606 tenge in 2027.

Audit Findings

The Supreme Audit Chamber inspected CEF, the Finance Ministry, and contractor Q19 for 2020–2024 and published its results on December 23, 2025. The audit found financial violations totaling 566 million tenge, ineffective use of funds of 764 million tenge, and ineffective planning of 12.7 billion tenge. Auditors identified hundreds of disputed technical changes in the public procurement system, including disabled electronic signature checks for certain users and unencrypted price information until July 2025. A scoring system malfunction lasted nearly four months and affected procurements worth 2.23 billion tenge. Three episodes were referred to criminal prosecution authorities: contractor Q19 began developing a subsystem before the tender was announced, a 17 million tenge seminar was paid under a backdated contract, and incorrect system updates affected procurement results.

Recovery Orders

The Finance Ministry was ordered to return 457.8 million tenge to the budget, and CEF was ordered to return 108.3 million tenge, with a deadline of December 31, 2026. An independent price review of CEF's tariffs, which has not been conducted since December 2023, must also be completed by the same date. No public response from the Finance Ministry or CEF to the audit findings was found in open sources.