The Anti-Corruption Agency issued its conclusions and recommendations based on the national report on combating corruption in Uzbekistan for 2023 and the analysis of corruption crimes and criminal law statistics presented in it.

Reportedly, in the fight against corruption, chief of a government body or organization should first of all set a personal example and take the initiative. According to the agency, although the amount and scale of funds allocated for social protection of citizens is constantly increasing, the purposeless use and embezzlement of these funds is also not stopping.

“The lack of a system for regulating conflicts of interest and declaring the income and property of civil servants is affecting the efficiency of reforms aimed at preventing corruption.

One of the important challenges facing us is to consistently continue anti-corruption reforms to eliminate the above factors and engage civil society institutions, media and the public in the fight against this scourge by establishing strong citizen oversight,” the agency’s conclusion noted.

This system was supposed to take effect 3 years ago

Earlier, according to the presidential decree, a system of mandatory declaration of income and property of civil servants, organizations with a state share of more than 50 percent, heads and deputies of state enterprises and institutions, their spouses and minor children was to be introduced from January 1, 2022.

The Anti-Corruption Agency submitted the financial disclosure of public servants bill to the Cabinet of Ministers on November 13, 2021. However, the government has not yet submitted the bill to the Legislative Chamber.

The Agency added that the system for financial disclosure of public servants is currently ready and has been used as a test in the Customs Committee since 2023. The bill is still in the government, and the part related to the financial disclosure is being improved.

Earlier, the Director of the Agency, Akmal Burkhanov said that the bill on creating an open register of corrupt officials and introducing a number of prohibitions against persons on the register would be submitted to parliament by the end of September 2024. However, this draft, which has been delayed for several years, was also not submitted to parliament by the specified deadline.

Other proposals of the Anticorruption Agency

In the national report, the agency made a number of recommendations, including:

• introduction of preliminary study of corruption cases and corruption inquiry;
• establishing a regional research center on corruption issues;
• continue the implementation of "corruption-free trade" projects in areas with high corruption risks and to launch "corruption-free office" projects in areas with high corruption risks;
• setting up of a Situation Center for the analysis of corruption risks in all spheres of state and community life;
• further expand the scope of socially important information that should be made public
• harsher liability measures for violations in the public procurement ;
• systematic organization of complex sociological R&D - on fighting corruption by specialized scientific research institutions;