In the first half of 2023, five regulatory legal acts were adopted in the field of combating corruption, including three Decrees of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and one departmental regulatory legal act.

In particular:

The Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan of January 25, 2023 ‘On priority organizational measures for the effective establishment of the activities of the republican executive bodies’ established the requirement to create anti-corruption units in the central offices of ministries and departments in a mandatory manner.

The Decree of the President of May 24, 2023 ‘On improving state control mechanisms and implementing the digital energy control system in the fuel and energy industry’ outlined the task of turning the sphere into a ‘sphere without corruption’ based on a systematic analysis of corruption factors in legislative acts in the fuel and energy industry.

Also, the Decree of the President of June 20, 2023 ‘On measures for the effective organization of state management in the field of water management within the framework of administrative reforms’ outlined the task of developing and approving a Departmental Program 2023 to improve the organizational, legal and financial mechanisms for combating corruption in the industry, and also to eliminate the factors that generate corruption in the context of the ministry and organizations of the system.

In addition, Order No.54 of the Director of the Anti-Corruption Agency approved the Regulation ‘On the cost of a gift that can be received in connection with business trips, international and other official events by a civil servant, as well as on the procedure for disposing of it.’

During the reporting period, the Anti-Corruption Agency conducted more than 20 studies to identify and analyze the factors that give rise to corruption in various areas of state and public life, as a result of which 25 analytical materials were submitted to the Administration of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan and other organizations.

In total, in the first half of 2023, the Anti-Corruption Agency received 1562 appeals, of which 1535 were considered, 35 appeals are under consideration.

Based on the results of consideration of appeals, 18 enquiries were sent to the relevant ministries and departments, the regional (district, city) hokimiyats, as well as 13 statutory notices were submitted to eliminate the facts of violation of the law.

Based on the results of consideration of appeals, 6 people were brought to disciplinary responsibility, an employment contract with 1 employee of a government body was terminated, 4 decisions were canceled, 4 criminal cases and 3 cases of an administrative offense were initiated, measures were taken to eliminate errors and shortcomings.

The results of remote monitoring of compliance with the requirements of the legislation on public procurement are as follows:

1. 110 statutory notices were submitted to the ministries and departments to eliminate the causes and conditions of corruption violations on announced purchases in the amount of 85 billion soums.

As a result, 83 public procurements were canceled, 44 responsible persons were brought to disciplinary responsibility.

2. 43 enquiries were sent to the State Financial Control Inspectorate for a legal assessment of public procurement in the amount of 57 billion soums.

As a result, the State Financial Control Inspectorate initiated 21 cases of administrative offense against officials who violated the law in public procurement.

3. 68 enquiries were sent to law enforcement agencies for the legal assessment of public procurement in the amount of 284 billion soums.

As a result, law enforcement agencies initiated 15 administrative and 12 criminal cases against officials who violated the law in public procurement.

In accordance with the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. DP-154 of June 14, 2022, the Agency analyzed the effectiveness and shortcomings in ensuring the openness of the activities of government bodies and organizations in 2022 and based on the target indicators formed the Openness Index.

The Openness Index covered the activities of 86 ministries, departments and institutions, the openness of which was assessed on a scale from 0 to 100 points. According to the assessment, the activities of 15 government bodies entered the ‘green’ category (71-100 points), the activities of 44 organizations assessed as ‘yellow’ (55-71 points) and 27 organizations were assigned to the ‘red’ category (below 55 points).

The Openness Index assessment system was fully digitized, and the general public was given the opportunity to track the efficiency and effectiveness of government agencies in real time through Open.index platform.

According to the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. DP-6247 of June 16, 2021, the implementation of legal acts on openness in government bodies and organizations was studied remotely, and based on the results, 7 statutory notices were submitted to ministries and departments.

On May 16-17, for the first time in Bukhara, the Central Asia Forum on Transparency of Government Agencies Activities was held, organized by the Anti-Corruption Agency together with the Representative Office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Central Asia.

In accordance with the Resolution of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. RP-5177 of July 6, 2021, to date, 87 government bodies and organizations, including banks, have established the work of internal anti-corruption control units.

In the first half of 2023, the Agency conducted a field study of the implementation of the internal anti-corruption control system in 20 ministries and departments, and local government bodies. Based on the results of the study, methodological support was provided to improve their activities, 5 statutory notices were submitted to ministries and departments aimed at the effective organization of activities in this track, as well as one warning letter.

Employment of heads of internal anti-corruption control units on the basis of an open competition in 15 government bodies and organizations has been ensured.

This year, in accordance with the Resolution of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. RP-81 of January 12, 2022, an assessment was made of the effectiveness of the fight against corruption in government bodies and organizations. In it, the effectiveness of anti-corruption efforts of 62 government organizations was evaluated on a scale from 0 to 100 points. According to the results, 12 organizations received a ‘good’ assessment (81-100 points), 30 organizations - a ‘satisfactory’ assessment (55-80 points) and 20 organizations, having collected below 55 points, received an ‘unsatisfactory’ assessment.

Also, in accordance with the Resolution of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. RP-240 of May 11, 2022, an assessment of corruption risks was carried out for a total of 1,701 functions of 39 ministries and departments. It was found that the risk of corruption is ‘high’ in 177 functions, ‘medium’ - in 475 functions, and 1049 functions has ‘low’ risk indicator.

In April 2023, a regular meeting of the National Anti-Corruption Council was organized, at which the results of the rating assessment of the effectiveness of combating corruption in government bodies and organizations were considered, which decided to hear the reports of the heads of organizations that received an ‘unsatisfactory’ rating based on the results of the rating.

In addition, the minutes of the meeting approved the Work Plan of the National Council for the first half of 2023, Action Plans aimed at enhancing the role of civil society institutions in the fight against corruption.

Based on the methodology for rating the activities of regional anti-corruption councils of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, regions and the city of Tashkent, an assessment of their activities for 2022 was carried out and the results of the assessment were submitted to the National Council.

The Anti-Corruption Agency, together with the Senate of the Oliy Majlis, organized regular meetings of the regional councils of Bukhara, Tashkent and Khorezm regions, at which reports were heard from the heads of regional government bodies on the work done to combat corruption.

Within the framework of international cooperation in the fight against corruption, the Agency intensifies its cooperation relations with UNDP, UNODC, the World Bank, the OSCE, the German Society for International Cooperation, the Regional Dialogue INGO and a number of foreign countries, including the USA, France, Slovenia, Finland, Estonia, Malaysia, Kazakhstan and others.

In particular, an Action Plan was developed and approved for the implementation of the Memorandum of Cooperation between the Anti-Corruption Agency of Uzbekistan and the Anti-Corruption Agency of France.

The Anti-Corruption Agency, together with the OSCE, is implementing the second phase of the project ‘Supporting the Fight Against Corruption in Uzbekistan’.

About 10 major conferences have been organized jointly with international partners.

Press Office

The Anti-Corruption Agency