Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev told officials in the southern city of Taraz that “heads will roll” if budget funds allocated for regional development are embezzled, Interfax reported.

State officials will have to account for outlays on development programs similarly to the stringent controls applied at the height of the economic crisis, Nazarbayev was quoted as saying by the Russian news service.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nariman Gizitdinov in Almaty at ngizitdinov@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net