Corruption cases on the rise in Uzbekistan's healthcare, employment, and banking sectors

The most common areas of corruption in Uzbekistan were discussed during a plenary session today, March 17, at the fifth meeting of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis.

It was reported that corruption cases are particularly prevalent in the healthcare, employment, and banking sectors. Specifically, 527 corruption cases were recorded in healthcare, 447 in employment, and 434 in banking.

The session also highlighted that the role and responsibility of internal anti-corruption control (compliance control) units within state bodies and organizations in combating and preventing corruption have been insufficient. Furthermore, it was noted that the Anti-Corruption Agency has not examined the experiences of foreign countries in this area nor developed proposals for improving the sector.

“The factors contributing to corruption in ministries that receive the most funds from the budget have not been identified, studied, or analyzed. In districts and neighborhoods, domestic corruption issues such as illegal connections to infrastructure, obtaining licenses, granting preferential loans, hiring, and qualification upgrades have increased. Investigators, prosecutors, and judges are often limited to submitting only submissions to relevant agencies and issuing private rulings on cases in their hands. The work of regional anti-corruption councils does not meet expectations, and there is a lack of cooperation with neighborhoods,” the report states.

Criticism was also directed at the absence of a system for assessing relationships between state agencies and the population regarding public services. Additionally, the activities of the prosecutor’s office, internal affairs, and tax authorities in preventing corruption were found to be inadequate.

At the conclusion of the session, the Senate adopted a resolution outlining the priority tasks to be implemented in the fight against crime and the prevention of corruption.