In Uzbekistan, budget funds allocated for youth development have disappeared
Billions of sums of budget funds allocated for the state program “Youth is our future” were used for other purposes. This was announced on January 31 during a meeting of the Committee on Youth, Culture and Sports under the Parliament.
The senators explained to the Uzbek media that “the practice of recent years has shown that billions of funds earmarked for the State program “Youth is our future” are not transferred to the appropriate fund and have not reached initiative, enterprising youth”.
The program began to operate in July 2018. According to the relevant decree of President Mirziyoev, one of the main sources of financing was gratuitous financial assistance from the republican budget due to overfulfilment of the forecasted portion of income in the amount of 500 billion sums (at that time $65 million). They had to be accumulated in the accounts of a specially created fund. The main goal of the program is to ensure youth employment through assistance and support in the implementation of youth business initiatives, start-ups, ideas and projects, training of unemployed youth in specialties and business skills that are in demand on the labor market.
Where the money went and how much was spent on youth initiatives, the senators did not specify. Members of the Committee received instructions “on strict control of targeted allocation of funds to address youth issues, the development of the spheres of culture and sports, as well as assistance to partner organizations in this direction”.
In 2019, as part of the state program, over 2 trillion sums ($250 million) were to be used to provide employment for more than 50 thousand boys and girls. As of August 1, 2019, only 333.2 billion sums were allocated for 1555 projects. This means that the program was only 15% complete.
As ACCA previously wrote, in 2019, the Department of State Financial Control under the Ministry of Finance conducted total checks. It turned out that $1 741 000 was stolen in the structures of the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education, which is 2.5 times more than in 2018.
The largest number of cases of violation of budgetary discipline in 2019 was revealed in the system of the Ministry of Education. The amount of embezzlement was 2.7 times more than in 2018 and amounted to $ 3 106 000. Kindergartens and similar institutions, corrupt officials in the system of the Ministry of preschool education, robbed children of almost $1 million, which is 1.5 times more than in 2018.
