OREANDA-NEWS. September 14, 2011. Standard & Poor's Governance Services said today that it had affirmed and immediately withdrawn its 'GAMMA-5+' Governance, Accountability, Management Metrics, and Analysis score assigned to Kazakhtelecom (JSC), the largest telecommunications operator in Kazakhstan, reported the press-centre of KASE.

The withdrawal of the GAMMA score on Kazakhtelecom is made at Standard & Poor's initiative. It reflects our decision to cease providing stand-alone governance scores, while continuing to incorporate governance analysis in our global and local scale credit ratings.

Kazakhtelecom's overall GAMMA score is the result of four component scores ranging from a low of 1 to a high of 10:

- Shareholder influence: '5+' (no change)

- Shareholder rights: '6' (raised from '5+')

- Transparency, audit, and enterprise risk management: '6' (no change)

- Board effectiveness, strategic process, and incentives: '5' (no change)

"Kazakhtelecom continued to develop its corporate governance procedures in 2011. The board played an active role in the decision-making process and we believe the newly created strategy committee has become an effective platform for strategic discussions," said Standard & Poor's governance analyst Ekaterina Marushkevich. - On the other hand, several important weaknesses remain. In particular, the executive compensation system does not present meaningful performance incentives, in our view. Amendments to the long-term corporate strategy have not yet been approved, while its previous edition dates back to 2007. Moreover, disclosure of ultimate owners of the minority stakes is incomplete".