Uzbekistan: Anti-Corruption Agency will report to the President
The new Anti-Corruption Agency, whose creation was announced in the country, would be fully subordinate to the President and both chambers of the Parliament.
As noted in the presidential decree, one of the tasks of the Agency is to coordinate the activities of ministries and departments in the field of prevention, combating corruption and organizing effective interaction between government bodies. The new Agency is charged with the systematic analysis of the state of corruption in the country, for that regional units will begin to work. Thus, the provisions of the State Anti-Corruption program for 2019–2020 are practically repeated.
Neither the decree on the creation of the Agency, nor the text of the state program speaks of independence in the investigation of corruption. The program mentioned the creation of numerous interdepartmental commissions throughout the chain of command with the participation of “people’s deputies” of all levels. The list includes corrupt representatives of the deputy corps, fiscal and law enforcement agencies.
According to an ACCA expert, a bureaucratic structure is being created that duplicates the work of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the State Security Service and the Prosecutor’s office. “It will not fight corruption,” the expert considers. “The degree of guilt and the measure of punishment of senior officials will be fixed personally by the President. Those, who can be sacrificed in imitation of justice, will go to trial.”
The administration of Shavkat Mirziyoev, which is directly related to the creation of the Agency, in reality, humiliated the Prosecutor General Nigmatilla Yuldashev, who confidently stated that the “Anti-Corruption Agency, which will be created in Uzbekistan, will have the status of an independent law enforcement agency. Its powers will extend to members of the Parliament, the presidential administration, the government and other officials”.
Yuldashev confidently spoke about the main function of the Agency in coordinating the fight against corruption in the country. “We must move from everyday corruption to investigation of elitist corruption … If we rise to the top level and prevent elitist corruption, then there will be no domestic corruption below,” the Prosecutor General explained.
Earlier, ACCA wrote about the bill “On state civil service”, requiring officials to report on their incomes. Its provisions don’t apply to the President, deputies, judges and a number of other public servants.
