Uzbekistan: corrupt officials stole $ 8 million from the budget
The pandemic has opened up new opportunities for corrupt officials, as evidenced by the statistics of the Ministry of Finance. In the first half of the year, the department revealed the illegal embezzlement of 81.7 billion soums ($ 1 = 10,200 soums).
The ministry calls the corruption essence of statistics as the violation of budgetary discipline. Abuse of budgetary funds is especially noticeable in the public education system (21.5 billion soums), healthcare (14.1 billion soums), and preschool education (6.9 billion soums).
Materials on the facts of corruption for 79.4 billion soums were sent to law enforcement agencies, 47 officials were fined $ 3400 for violating budget legislation.
The most fertile time for theft was quarantine and anti-epidemic measures. In five regions of the country, employees of units of the Agency for Sanitary and Epidemiological Welfare have already been brought to criminal responsibility.
On July 21, it became known about the criminal activities of 86 employees and officials of the Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision of the Parkent district of the Tashkent region. During a pre-investigation check by the department under the Prosecutor General’s Office, it was discovered that they were able to supplement their income by $ 40 thousand.
Earlier, ACCA wrote about the Navoi Regional Center for Sanitary and Epidemiological Welfare, where $ 42,500 was stolen from the Anti-Crisis Fund.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the Anti-Crisis Fund is being replenished mainly with concessional loans from international financial organizations. As of June, the fund allocated $ 65 million to the SEW Agency.
