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Effective Government

 

The problem is not the number of employees, but the imbalance in structure.

 

The main difficulty of Kazakhstan’s state apparatus lies not in having too many workers, but in having too many controllers and too few implementers.

 

Critics of reforms often note that many initiatives amount more to a “theater of efficiency” than to real change. They fail to address systemic problems: growing social spending without sufficient return, deteriorating infrastructure, low quality of education, a shrinking middle class, and weak productivity growth. To overcome these challenges, the state must become not only leaner but also smarter: entrepreneurial, flexible, and accountable to society.

 

A significant share of the blame lies in outdated management practices of the industrial era. In such systems, compliance with rules is valued above productivity, paperwork above common sense, and endless approvals above action. This logic inevitably breeds bureaucracy.

 

Today, Kazakhstan’s government bodies often display a structural imbalance: one manager or administrator is responsible for too few frontline employees. While in effective organizations the ratio might be one to five, in our case decision-making increasingly shifts from specialists “on the ground” to managers and controllers. As a result, those who try to work effectively encounter excessive caution from leadership and a culture of responsibility-shifting.

 

Bureaucracy can be overcome. This requires a consistent course of reducing excessive administrative layers and fostering a culture of accountability.

 

This implies several steps:

 

1. Cutting bureaucratic ballast.
Every ministry and akimat must publicly report the cost and value of administrative procedures. All rituals that add no value—unnecessary certificates, duplicative approvals, prolonged inspections—must be eliminated. Agencies that fail to show progress should lose part of their funding.

 

2. Optimizing the management apparatus.
The number of administrators and managers must be sharply reduced. The number of employees reporting to each manager should be doubled, and a five-year moratorium imposed on creating new administrative positions. Administrators and managers should not exceed 20% of the total staff.

 

3. Ambitious goals.
Government agencies should set “moonshot goals” capable of mobilizing the system. For example: halving the timelines for infrastructure projects, eliminating the shortage of social housing within a few years, or ensuring schools fully transition to new quality standards in education.

 

4. A culture of experimentation.
Each department should operate as a laboratory of ideas. This means giving teams the right to experiment with new approaches, from digitalizing services to innovative methods of HR management.

 

5. Focus on results.
Every program and project must demonstrate measurable outcomes. Funding should be tied not to the amount of money spent but to real social and economic impact.

 

6. Dialogue with implementers.
Every government manager must regularly spend time with frontline employees, asking direct questions: “What prevents you from working?”, “What stifles your initiative?” Often, it is specialists on the ground who best understand what needs to change.

 

To preserve competitiveness and accelerate development, Kazakhstan needs not just a “smaller” state apparatus, but one that is more effective and results-oriented. Only smart, flexible, and accountable governance can secure new breakthroughs for the country.