When will information about the assets of influential government officials become available to ordinary people?

In Uzbekistan, from 1 January 2022, the declaration of property of officials has begun. Information on the property of officials will be released by the end of this year. This was stated yesterday, 10 March, at the conference on the public report of the Anti-Corruption Agency, by the Director of the Agency Akmal Burkhanov in response to a question from a QALAMPIR.UZ correspondent

“Decree No. PF-6257 «On measures to create an atmosphere of intolerance to corruption, drastic reduction of corruption in the sphere of public administration and expansion of public participation in it» adopted by Uzbekistan President on July 6, formalizes the the system of mandatory declaration of the property of civil servants from 1 January 2022. The Agency has developed a platform in this regard with relevant ministries and departments. The technical aspects of the platform have been discussed with the Ministry of ICT, Cybersecurity, and others. The most important is that the bill has been developed. There was a slight delay in the legislative process, but from 1 January 2022, the assets of all officials will be accounted for. When the law comes into force, it will be reported when it is published. Frankly, we said April 1, but we did not have time to catch up with doing this. It will be in June or July, or by the end of the year all the information will be available to the public», – Burkhanov said.

According to Burkhanov, before the introduction of the declaration process, foreign experience has regularly been studied. In many countries, property belonging to children of officials is not declared.

"If we look at foreign experience in the field of declaration, we will see that the best way to declare the property of close relatives and the spouse of the official.  In many countries, children are not included in the list, but Uzbekistan also includes registration of ownership of children under the age of 18. We will conclude in the declaration process: if everyone had transferred all their wealth to the relatives, of course, the process will be reviewed. There is also a human rights issue. Indeed, it is a recommendation of international organizations», – the Director of Anti-Corruption Agaency, Akmal Burkhanov, said this.

For reference, the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On measures to create an atmosphere of intolerance to corruption, drastic reduction of corruption in the sphere of public administration and expansion of public participation” adopted on 6 July 6 last year  includes establishing a system of compulsory declaration of the income and property of civil servants, organizations with a State share of more than 50 per cent, heads, and deputies of State enterprises and institutions, their spouses and minor children from 1 January 2022.