Corruption Risks in Mining Awards System of the Kyrgyz Republic aims to identify and analyse governance risks associated with the process for granting mineral exploration licence in the Kyrgyz Republic. 

This assessment is conducted by Transparency International Kyrgyzstan (TI Kyrgyzstan). The assessment adapted the Mining Awards Corruption Risk Assessment (MACRA) tool provided by Transparency International to consider the local circumstances. The study examined the provision of the right to use subsoil on the basis of a license, since this method is used for vast majority of all mining projects in the Kyrgyz Republic.

The risk assessment identified, that the mining awards process for granting subsoil use license contains 14 risks covering 7 contextual (CF) risk, 3 process-design (PD) risks, 1 process-practice (PP) risk, and 3 mining related approvals, of which 2 Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) and 1 community consultations (CC) risks. These risks reflect gaps in the field of disclosure before and after the award of the contract, the evaluation process, and in the field of public consultation, but most of the risks relate to the context in which the awarding of mineral rights is carried out, which indicates the need for full-scale reforms in the country’s governance system as a whole. 

In order to mitigate these risks, this study recommends the development of a more reliable regulatory framework with the provisions of regulatory acts governing licensing of subsoil use in line with each other and the exclusion of regulatory gaps in them, both in terms of granting the right to use subsoil and in terms of strengthening transparency and accountability requirements.