This report presents the analysis of the assessment of the way inspections are implemented by the Environmental Safety Department of the State Inspectorate for Environmental and Technical Safety of Kyrgyzstan in the capital Bishkek and two districts of Chui region of the Kyrgyz Republic. The study assessed the views of both inspectors of the aforementioned department and of entrepreneurs that were inspected by them. Analysis of the study’s results allowed establishing that:
- There is a decent level of compliance in the Environmental Safety Department of those locations with some of the key requirements of the appropriate legislation (e.g. advance notification, check-lists), but “decent” is still far from “good” or “very good”. The study revealed some variations and inconsistencies between implementation of individual inspectors.
- The merger of seven inspectorates into one under the ‘umbrella’ of the State Inspectorate for Environmental and Technical Safety in 2012 has not yet resulted in a real functional merger internally – sending teams of inspectors is a “stop gap” measure, but deeper changes are needed to progress further.
- The high numbers of violations found and sanctions issued indicate that compliance promotion activities are currently not among the priorities of inspectors of the assessed department with inspectors devoting little to no time to these activities.
- Additional research is required to establish the level of burden in terms of coverage of businesses by inspections. This study was not intended to do it but rather focused on how inspections legislation is implemented to enable identifying any gaps or bottlenecks of implementation.
- Businesses seem to positively react to the use of checklists viewing them as the willingness of inspectors to help entrepreneurs.
- Hotline has not yet gained popularity among businesses. They continue relying on their friends and contacts for information about regulations and compliance requirements.