Introduction. The article provides a comparative analysis of the rules concerning the regulation of the grounds and procedure for implementing secret investigative actions, the original version of the Criminal Procedure Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan adopted in 2014, and its current version. Attention is drawn to the difference between covert investigative actions and operational-search measures, which have their own legal regulation. The author notes certain similarities and differences in the legal regulation of the institution of secret (covert) investigative actions under the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Georgia. The experience of these states, in the author's opinion, can be considered positive in terms of providing additional guarantees for the protection of the rights of participants in criminal proceedings. Methods. The methodological basis of the study is dialectical, logical, systemic methods, as well as a number of other methods of scientific knowledge (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, comparison, generalization, description). Results. The history of the formation and development of the legal institution under consideration is short, but it has already allowed to identify and correct some problems of its legal regulation. The author pays special attention to possible prospects for further improvement of the procedure for conducting secret investigative actions in terms of establishing a three-tier system for authorizing their production, determining the maximum time for their implementation, as well as clarifying the starting point of the period for sending materials to the investigating judge to obtain authorization for the production of urgent secret investigative actions.