President of Kazakhstan, Mr Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has vowed the personally oversee the investigation into large-scale embezzlement from the country's Social Medical Insurance Fund (SMIF).
According to an article on news platform The Times of Central Asia, Mr Tokayev has also “instructed the government to accelerate the rollout of a unified national healthcare information system”.
This is the latest development in an ongoing saga involving revelations of systemic fraud in SMIF, with Prime Minister Mr Olzhas Bektenov recently ordering the fund to be moved under the oversight of the Ministry of Finance.
Audits have uncovered “widespread violations, including the registration of fictitious patients, the billing of unnecessary medical services, duplicate financing of procedures and even the provision of treatments to deceased citizens”, the article said.
Findings have been submitted to law enforcement agencies for investigation, the article added.
Mr Tokayev has attributed much of the systemic fraud to the absence of a unified digital infrastructure in Kazakhstan’s healthcare system. At the moment, the country is using more than 30 separate and unintegrated information systems, leaving gaps in oversight.
The president has also ordered the finalisation of a single, centralised state medical information system by 1 December 2026.