CAT/OP/KAZ/1/Add.1 Paragraph 21 The Subcommittee recalls that, under article 18 (3) of the Optional Protocol, States parties are required to undertake to make available the necessary resources for the functioning of the national preventive mechanisms. Therefore, it recommends that funding be provided for the effective functioning of the mechanism through a specific budget line in the national annual budget, and that the mechanism be granted institutional autonomy for the use of its resources. 25. The Ministry of Justice currently administers the budget subprogramme that covers the activities of the national preventive mechanism. 26. The Ombudsman and the National Human Rights Centre are responsible for coordinating and conducting the activities of the national preventive mechanism. 27. Meanwhile, draft budget programmes for government agencies for 2017–2021 and administrator budget requests for the national budget programme for 2018–2020 were considered at a meeting of the National Budget Commission; as a result, the Ministry of Justice and the National Human Rights Centre were requested to collaborate on the transfer of the administration of the budget subprogramme for national preventive mechanism activities to the National Human Rights Centre. 28. The National Human Rights Centre, in line with its regulations as approved under Presidential Decree No. 992 of 10 December 2002, has the status of a legal entity in the legal form of a government institution. 29. Article 31 of the Budget Code provides that budget programmes are administered by the government agency responsible for planning, justifying, implementing and attaining the expected results. 30. National budget programmes are administered by the central executive and other central government bodies. 31. Article 2 (1) of the Administrative Procedures Act of 27 November 2000 defines government agencies as public institutions that are authorized by the Constitution, laws and other legal instruments to implement, on behalf of the State, functions related to: issuing laws establishing general rules of public conduct; the management and regulation of socially important social relations; and monitoring compliance with the general rules of conduct laid down by the State. 32. The National Human Rights Centre is not a government agency and therefore falls outside the scope of article 31 of the Budget Code; the transfer to it of the budget programme will therefore require changes to existing legislation. 33. The national preventive mechanism operates using funding from the national budget. The funds are used only to reimburse members of the mechanism for expenses related to preventive visits and may not be used to cover other expenses. 34. After each visit, national preventive mechanism members are reimbursed for expenses related to transport, accommodation, subsistence, stationery, postage and payment for the preparation of the report. 35. Such expenses amounted to 18.6 million tenge in 2014; 48 million tenge in 2015; and 66 million tenge in 2016; the forecast for 2017 is 61 million tenge. 36. With regard to the institutional autonomy of the national preventive mechanism in using the allocated budget, the regional teams independently draw up a list of institutions for preventive visits; this shows that the State does not intervene and the members act with autonomy. Paragraph 24 The Subcommittee recommends that the national preventive mechanism be empowered, through legislative means, to exercise core national preventive mechanism functions, including the powers to regularly examine the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty in all places of deprivation of liberty, as defined in article 4 of the Optional GE.18-05420 5