Uzbekistan: construction firms stole $ 245 thousand from the budget
Employees of the Qishloq Qurilish Invest engineering firm and two private companies in Syrdarya were charged with inflated prices of $ 245,000 in housing construction. This was reported by the press service of the General Prosecutor’s Office, the main relay of news on the fight against corruption in Uzbekistan.
The first criminal case on embezzlement of budgetary funds was initiated in the Akaltyn region, where 1.5 billion soums were stolen from the budget. A pre-investigation check showed that corrupt officials attributed unfulfilled construction work on the construction of two high-rise buildings for 949 and 586 million soums.
A similar crime was committed in Yangier. They embezzled 947 million soums of budget funds. They also attributed the unperformed work to the documents on the construction of a multi-story building in the Khavast district.
Criminal cases have been initiated against the employees of Qishloq Qurilish Invest and two companies under clause “a” of part 3 of article 167 (embezzlement by misappropriation or squandering) of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan.
The Qishloq Qurilish Invest company is a customer of housing construction in the regions of the country. Back in October 2019, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the work of the single customers Qishloq Qurilish Invest and Uzshahar Qurilish Invest. To increase competition and the quality of construction, the customer’s function had to gradually move to the private sector.
At the same time, there is no clear reasoning as to how this will affect the reduction of theft and shady deals, if over the past two years, within the framework of state programs, tenders were held for only 182 construction projects out of more than 3,000.
According to experts, the tender in conditions of unstable prices in the country is not an entirely effective procedure. Builders save on the quality and quantity of building materials, regardless of the form of ownership, and it is easy to cover up construction flaws with bribes. The human factor reduces the effectiveness of any digital technology.
The President demanded to launch a single platform that will include information on financial performance, the solvency of construction organizations, their participation in public procurement, and staff qualifications. At the same time, the country’s leader turns a blind eye to dubious investment activities in the capital. The founder of the Singapore company BMP Smart Decision Private Limited, which has received a 49-year lease of Gafur Gulyam park in Tashkent, is a citizen of Uzbekistan Sherzod Halimov. Its staff counts only two employees.
According to open data, the company was registered on February 13, 2019, with an authorized capital of $ 720, which did not prevent it from undertaking a multi-million dollar project involving large-scale construction in the park.
