This January 25, the Anti-Corruption Agency, together with the Ministry of Health and the Civil Service Development Agency, held a dialogue on the topic ‘Implementation of the Sphere without Corruption Project in the System of the Ministry of Health: Current Issues and Plans’. The event was also attended by representatives of civil society institutions and the media.

At the meeting, the measures undertaken in the healthcare system in connection with the implementation of the Sphere without Corruption Project were analyzed, the factors that give rise to corruption were discussed, and future tasks for their elimination were identified.

In the Address by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to the Oliy Majlis and the people of Uzbekistan on December 20, 2022, it was noted that the fight against corruption should be one of the main tasks of the head of each ministry and department.

In this regard, the Anti-Corruption Agency, in cooperation with the responsible ministries and departments, is engaged in the eradication of corruption in areas with a high rate of corruption, as well as departments where employees actively interact with the population.

In particular, together with the Ministry of Health, the Roadmap 2021-2022 was approved and implemented in the healthcare system under the Sphere Without Corruption Project.

Over the past period, the project has implemented the following work:

• launch of a hot line with a short number 1203 and Call-center for reporting of cases of corruption in the system;
• a mechanism for issuing quota orders to benefit holders at the expense of budgetary funds has been introduced in a fully electronic form in state medical institutions;
• more than 10 types of services have been converted into electronic form, the placement of the approved volume of paid services of medical institutions on the official website of the Ministry has been ensured;
• more than 26,000 informational materials on the prevention of corruption in the field were prepared and placed at the entrances of more than 3 thousand medical institutions, family polyclinics and hospitals, as well as the Anti-Corruption Guide for Healthcare Workers was prepared and distributed among the system employees.

At the same time, the industry faces a number of problems hampering further improvement in this track.

In particular, during 2022, the bulk of the crimes committed by industry employees are related to the theft of employees’ wages, recruitment or increasing working hours, public procurement, embezzlement of property and budget funds belonging to medical institutions, and receiving bribes for medical procedures.

The analysis shows that most of the persons involved in corruption crimes are not physicians or other medical personnel, but heads of institutions and administrative personnel.

In view of this, the Anti-Corruption Agency, the Ministry of Health and the Civil Service Development Agency also discussed the issue of regular professional development of managerial personnel, the introduction of open and transparent recruitment mechanisms into the system.

During the dialogue, representatives of the media, NGOs and the Public Council under the Anti-Corruption Agency expressed their proposals on the areas of public control in the field.

Following the meeting, the Anti-Corruption Agency, the Ministry of Health and the Civil Service Development Agency issued a Joint Statement.

The Joint Statement defines important tasks in several areas, including introducing the practice of regularly presenting the public and discussing ongoing work, recruitment on the basis of an open competition, and launching an electronic platform for considering job applications. Also, the official website of the Ministry will display information about vacancies in the system, introduce classified modern mechanisms for paying salaries to medical workers, launch an electronic platform that provides online information about occupied and vacant positions in medical institutions, etc.

The Joint Statement is available on the official website of the Anti-Corruption Agency, as well as presented to the media and the general public.

Press Office

The Anti-Corruption Agency