Tajikistan: Three officials were fired for trying to solve the problems of district
Three employees of the khukumat of Khovaling district and the secretary of one of the jamoats demand that the presidential administration give a legal assessment of their dismissal from their positions.
Sayligul Razzokova, secretary of the jamoat of Shugnov in Khovaling district, said that she worked for thirty years without any remarks in rural self-government bodies and considers her dismissal unfair and dishonest.
“I wrote an appeal to the new chairman of the district about the difficulties and problems in our jamoat and managed to get an appointment with him. He answered me that the next day he would send a commission to our jamoat to check what I had said.
“They will also check you. They will look at the documents, and we will come to some decision,” said the chairman. And I was sure that the working group would solve all the problems and help me,” Razzokova said.
But when she returned home, instead of the commission, the chairman of the jamoat convened a meeting of local deputies who expressed no confidence in the secretary of the jamoat for disrespectful treatment of the residents of the jamoat and dismissed her from her position. “I was fired at the direction of the chairman of the district only because I dared to turn to him about the problems of our jamoat.”
The former chief of staff of the chairman of the district, Iskandar Bobonazarov, and an employee of the general department of the khukumat of Khovaling district, Malika Rakhimzoda, who were dismissed after the change in the leadership of the district, have the same problems. Both of them believe that they were dismissed without any reason and therefore filed complaints with the Executive Office of the President of the country.
“Unfortunately, in Tajikistan, this practice of dismissing local government employees and civil servants has become the norm,” says social expert Olim Nazarov. “A new leader comes and begins to change employees for his nominees. At the same time, neither the law on civil service, nor the requirements of the law on self-government bodies of towns and villages are being fulfilled. In the case of Razzokova, if she committed a violation, they should have appointed an internal investigation, and only after a written explanation of the perpetrator, decide on the issue of disciplinary responsibility.”
However, neither the District Court of Khovaling nor the City Court of Kulyab took into account the requirements of the current legislation and dismissed Razzokova’s complaints concerning her unjustified dismissal, stating that she, as a civil servant, didn’t follow internal procedures and filed complaints.
“Any citizen has the right to apply to state authorities, local government authorities, self-government bodies of towns and villages and to officials, public associations, enterprises, institutions and organizations, regardless of ownership, whose competence includes resolving the issues raised in the appeals. And such a court response contradicts the law of the Republic of Tajikistan ‘On citizens’ appeals’,” Nazarov explains. “And the jamoat’s secretary has the same right.”
According to him, there is a regulation on certification of civil servants in Tajikistan. If an employee has passed this certification and is recognized as appropriate for the position, then no one has the right to re-appoint certification before the deadline and release him/her from office.
“This requirement concerns the rule of law, but everything is fine with us only on paper. Let’s see what the presidential administration’s verdict will be, but I don’t think it will be in favor of the applicants,” says Nazarov.
