Recently, social networks have increasingly reported on the use of funds by government agencies and organizations for publicity and other types of media advertising.

The Anti-Corruption Agency has conducted a study of the situation and revealed that, despite the presence of the Press Service in the organizational structure, some government agencies and enterprises with a state share entered into direct contracts with online media and advertising agencies for large sums.

In particular, in order to post information about their activities and PR-articles on media resources with a wide audience, government agencies and organizations signed contracts worth up to 50-700 million soums, regional administrations up to 50-100 million soums, and some enterprises with a state share of up to 3-4 billion soums.

Under these contracts, based on the audience and reputation of the media, as well as a number of other indicators, the prices for the placement of one information (article) or other types of media advertising ranged from 1.5 million soums to 30 million soums on average. The subject of the above contracts is actually the functional task of the Press Service of the government and economic authorities, which is clearly defined by the legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

It is noteworthy that most of these contracts were concluded directly, and it was established that there were no legal grounds for the allocation of funds under some contracts. In particular, the charter of the funds of budgetary organizations does not provide for the allocation of funds for these purposes. These situations led to the misuse of funds, as well as to various corruption factors.

At the same time, the conclusion of contracts with a leading media has a negative impact on effective public control over the activities of these organizations by the general public, including the media. The Anti-Corruption Agency submitted files containing results of the study to the Ministry of Economy and Finance for consideration of the issue of the expediency of spending in accordance with the current legal norms.

Also, the Agency submitted proposals to the Administration of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan to improve legislation in this area. In particular, it is proposed to introduce a procedure for mandatory public disclosure in the specified resources and terms of information on contracts concluded by all government agencies and organizations with the media, advertising agencies and other business entities on holding press conferences, briefings, thematic television programs and other events, as well as placing advertising and publishing articles.

Press Office

The Anti-Corruption Agency