Uzbekistan: the authorities of Tashkent bought about 5,000 portraits of Mirziyoev
The administration of Tashkent purchased the portraits of the President for $ 96,000 in May this year. The spending of almost a billion sums [the national currency] for 4965 photographs did not seem dubious to officials during the problems with the supply of food and essential goods to the population.
The portraits were purchased as part of direct government procurement from Kolorpak LLC. Ismail Israilov, the nephew of Tashkent mayor Jahongir Artykhodjaev, is the founder with 25 percent share in the authorized capital of the private printing house.
Blogger Umid Gafurov, who often publishes insider information, announced this on Troll.uz Telegram channel. Before, Ismail worked as a director and deputy director of Akfa Engineering and Management. The owner of this group of companies remains the mayor of Tashkent, who officially resigned the management of various enterprises after his appointment.
Deals without tender made with affiliates are a common practice of nepotism in the country. Kolorpak also became the general contractor for the publication of 8 million textbooks in the summer. 2.5 months before the start of the school year, the contract with other publishers was changed. According to the online edition Daryo.uz, the order was given to Kolorpak printing house 2.5 months before the start of the academic year. Earlier, the contract for the production of textbooks was signed with the state publishing and printing house named after Gafur Gulyam.
The merger of the public and private sectors of the economy in the largest country in Central Asia, as exemplified by the business empire of Artykhodjaev, was so obvious that it was investigated by the experts from the international organization “Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative” (CHRI).
ACCA recently published information that the Prosecutor General’s Office and law enforcement agencies have prosecuted 1986 officials over two years. The most common corruption crimes are misappropriation or embezzlement of property, abuse of power, giving and receiving bribes.
In the economic sphere, corruption occurs mainly in the use of budget funds. During this period, the state suffered more than $ 35 million of budget funds’ losses.
Akmal Burkhanov, Director of the Anti-Corruption Agency, expressed his attitude to such transactions. On November 13, he said that officials are not fully aware of the importance of effectively using budget funds in the difficult conditions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
