A study conducted recently by the Anti-Corruption Agency revealed a number of violations in the field of public procurement. In particular, in two public procurements worth 1 billion 570.0 million soums (1,055.0 million soums and 515.0 million soums) for the provision of transport services by order of UE AVTOMAGISTRAL conducted on 25 March 2023, several articles of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan ‘On Public Procurement’ were violated, including:

• Article 10 (principle of competition and objectivity);
• Article 14 (conflict of interest);
• Article 19 (government customers);
• Article 42 (conditions for exclusion of a participant from procurement procedures);
• Article 46 (restrictions in the public procurement process).

It was revealed that B.M.I, the founder of I.A.M. LLC, which won the public procurement in the amount of 515.0 million soums, was a member of the Procurement Commission and the chief engineer of UE AVTOMAGISTRAL. The act led to unfair competition.

In addition, it was revealed that in both public procurements, documents of entrepreneurs participating in the competitions were uploaded to a special electronic platform via the IP address of the computer used by the Secretary of the Procurement Commission.

The Anti-Corruption Agency submitted a statutory notice to the customer to cancel the minutes of the meeting of the Procurement Commission in both cases, and the materials collected were sent to the Prosecutor General’s Office. Also, an enquiry was sent to the Committee for Roads of the Republic of Uzbekistan to conduct an internal audit.

According to the letter sent to the Anti-Corruption Agency by UE AVTOMAGISTRAL on March 29, 2023, the violations noted in the Agency’s statutory notice have been eliminated, and the minutes of the meeting of the Procurement Commission for 2 lots cancelled.

Press Office

The Anti-Corruption Agency