Building of the Government of Kazakhstan. Photo: gov.kz.
President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has signed a decree granting new functions and powers to the National Security Committee (KNB). The document has been published in the official legal acts database.
Some of its provisions entered into force on December 9, the day it was signed. However, the clauses related to work with material reserves will take effect in January 2027. The new decree expands the KNB’s role in the system for preventing economic and terrorist threats.
Under the decree, the security service will now be able, at the request of an authorized body, to provide information from its own databases to counter money laundering, the financing of terrorism, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
The document also clarifies the KNB’s powers in the area of the state material reserve. The committee will be authorized to submit proposals to the relevant authority on the range and volume of stored material assets, make decisions on the release of items from the mobilization reserve, place orders for the supply of reserve assets, and carry out related functions.
Tokayev last expanded the powers of the National Security Committee a year ago. At that time, the KNB was granted the right to develop, create, and acquire information systems and electronic information resources, special technical equipment, communications systems, and specialized telecommunications networks; to conduct special background checks of employees and servicemen of national security bodies; to recruit citizens of Kazakhstan on a voluntary basis as non-staff operational personnel; to establish and use a special state archive; to organize and oversee the activities of border representatives; and to draft and approve regulatory legal acts in the field of state secrets protection, as well as to carry out work aimed at the patriotic, moral, and spiritual education of personnel and the prevention of offenses within national security bodies.
