In Uzbekistan, corrupt officials trap in distribution of humanitarian aid

The chairman of the makhalla received 15 days of arrest for fraud with flour for low-income families in Samarkand region. The District Administrative Court of Urgut found the official guilty of carrying out illegal business activities and counteracting law enforcement officers, fined him 1 115 000 sums ($110).

Uzbek online media spread the news, giving it social significance against the backdrop of public discontent over the distribution of humanitarian aid during the quarantine period. Most of the claims are laid to the work of local administrations.

“The ill-starred chairman of Samarkand made an illegal profit of $110, and all the media were filled with righteous indignation. I exposed the chairman of the makhalla of Tashkent in appropriating sponsorship money for almost 7 million sums ($700), and everything got away with it. And now, we need to press for humanitarian aid for people from our lists after persistent calls to the district administrations of Tashkent and the makhalla itself,” says human rights activist Tatyana Dovlatova.

Now Tashkent residents are sharing facts of abuse and outright indifference of the makhalla’s representatives to old and poor people. On April 23, ACCA’s journalist was told about 80-year-old Lyudmila Sidorova, who lives on the fourth floor in Chilanzar district. The last time they brought her food on April 8th, there were no chicken or eggs in the grocery set. Someone decided that rice, flour, tea, sugar and sunflower oil would be enough for the old woman. By the way, civic activists determined another optimal set: chicken, rice, pasta, butter, cookies, sugar, bread, tea, oatmeal, milk, some minced meat, eggs, potatoes and tomatoes.

On April 23, in Sergeli district of Tashkent, near the building of the department of the Ministry of makhalla and family support, a local resident, Zuhra Zerikova, saw unloading dozens of food bags in which she discerned chocolate butter, cheese and sausage. She doubts that “such quarantine delicacies will go to those in need”.

To create a system of assistance to the population, the Ministry has created sponsorship coordination centers in the regions of the country. They have established control that virtually eliminates corruption, it is after the products get into the makhallas. Hundreds of supposedly non-governmental organizations, in fact, dissociated themselves from civilian control, thereby confirming their incapacity. Initiative groups and individual citizens took on their functions.

Prior to April 1, spontaneous volunteer groups themselves compiled lists, found money to buy food, and delivered targeted assistance. Quite unexpectedly, the state, represented by the deputy minister for supporting the makhalla and the family, Elmira Basithanova, considered their activities as inappropriate. She said that “over the past 5 days, there have been about 200 complaints about the delivery of food to old and low-income people”. It was also mentioned about 494 appeals of some conscious citizens about violation of quarantine requirements by volunteers when delivering charity assistance to old people.

The executive director of Smartgov Consulting, an expert in public administration, Aziza Umarova, responded to this. “Excuse me, Elmira Basithanova. Since the early morning, my mobile phone is constantly ringing,” Umarova said. “Five people have already called, lonely old women. People give my number to each other. These 80-year-old women don’t know the numbers of their makhalla’s committees. Some of them don’t even know the name of their makhallas. Where to send them? The call center is always busy. It’s impossible to reach them. Please, specify where people with disabilities and lonely old women should go. They have not been given a pension yet. Their refrigerator is empty. They don’t have medicines, as well as the Internet and mobile phone.”

Initially, the centers coped with requests for help, sending volunteers with products on the same day. Now, help comes in ten days if people can get into a conversation with a call center operator.

By the end of April, the situation is only getting worse. Families, in which hundreds of thousands of breadwinners remained unemployed, began to enter the group of needy. For them, salary was the main source of income. Representatives of the makhalla, in order to reduce the number of petitioners, are already talking about household appliances in their homes as well-being. In their opinion, there is no need to help such people.

In Tashkent, there are almost 741 thousand families. If authorities provide monthly each family with food in the equivalent of $20, then the costs will amount to almost $15 million. According to an ACCA expert, the state is now at the limit of opportunities to help citizens of the country. The population is 34 million.

“Funds are being accumulated in various funds. Russian oligarchs of Uzbek origin go to direct financial investments in charity. Local entrepreneurs are active,” the expert notes. “All this is already not enough now, and corruption at any stage of helping the population in the absence of an exhaustive register of those in need reduces the effectiveness of any good intentions.”

Meanwhile, the blind invalid of the first group, Pavel Nevedomsky, has never received food set. Pavel and his wife live in Chilanzar district of Tashkent. Prior to quarantine, most of the pension went to medicines …