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KURMANBEK BAKIYEV’S ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS
DENIS KIM,
Expert of the Eurasia Heritage Foundation, Moscow
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev started the large-scale reforms of the government administration system. The President said that the reforms objective was to cancel the government agencies duplicating, to cut the bureaucracy, to create favourable conditions for business development, etc. In fact, Mr. Bakiyev is going to extend the presidential powers and to appoint the people, who are close to him, to the key posts.
To strengthen the presidential power, President Bakiyev intends to fully reform the Presidential Executive Office delegating extra authority to it and to change the government structure removing the key ministries out of the Cabinet. This way, the Presidential Executive Office will be replaced by the President’s Institution that will be fully subordinate to Kurmanbek Bakiyev. The President’s Institution will consist of the President’s Staff, Secretariat and the Development, Investments and Innovations Agency. Apart from that, the President’s Institution will include the posts of the state adviser on defense, security and law and order as well as the foreign minister. Therefore, the Foreign Ministry will not be subordinate to the Prime Minister any more.
The special services will no longer be part of the Cabinet either. Although formally they will be independent agencies, in fact they will report directly to the President. According to the new scheme, those agencies will include the National Security Service (the former State Committee of National Security), and the new registration service that got many registration functions of the former government ministries and agencies (registration of motor transport, passport system, registry offices and others). The Financial Police Service and the patent agency, which has become the intellectual property service, will be withdrawn from the Cabinet too.
New Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov, Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s “protégé”, will be responsible for the ministries remaining in the Cabinet. The President himself nominated Usenov’s candidature, while the pro-president party “Ak Zhol” approved the candidate in the Parliament. Daniyar Usenov stands well with the President. Firstly, he actively participated in financing Kurnambek Bakiyev’s election campaign in 2005. Secondly, he is a good manager, he made his first fortune in the early nineties in many respects thanks to his friend, the then Prime Minister Apas Dzhumagulov. At that time, “Eridan” company, which was managed by Daniyar Usenov and his brother, had almost a monopoly grip on the ethyl alcohol market and fixed the ethyl alcohol prices in Kyrgyzstan and Southern Kazakhstan. Thirdly, Daniyar Usenov and Maxim Bakiyev, the President’s son, have business interests in common.
By the way, Kurmanbek Bakiyev is going to charge his son Maxim Bakiyev with controlling the finances and investments. According to some mass media, Maxim Bakiyev will be appointed as head of the Central Development, Investments and Innovations Agency. The President said that Maxim Bakiyev would be responsible for working out a strategy of the economic structure rebuilding, for the business support, attraction of investments and other tasks that would be of the same importance to the country. [1]
The Kyrgyz President personally will control the Kyrgyzstan Development Foundation through which the main foreign financial flows go. Kurmanbek Bakiyev said that the Foundation budget fulfillment would be controlled by the President’s Institution. The Kyrgyzstan Development Foundation chooses the projects financed through Russia’s credit of $300 million. Besides the Russian money, the Foundation intends to take control of $20 million that the U.S. will send for Kyrgyzstan’s economic development.
This way, all the main political and economic resources will be concentrated in Kurmanbek Bakiyev's hands. Strengthening of the presidential power in the republic can be regarded as a result of Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s winning the July 2009 presidential election by a landslide. After a while the Kyrgyz President came to realize that the opposition was not ready to protest seriously. No foreign countries can organize “color revolutions” as in 2009 the President made substantial progress in the foreign policy. So, Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s reforms will be given the green light.
October 27, 2009
[1] Arkady Dubnov. A new executive chain of command in Kyrgyzstan // Vremya Novostey, No 194, October 21, 2009
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