Uzbek colleagues to adopt NABU’s and NACP’s anti-corruption experience

The representatives of Uzbek anti-corruption institutions highly appreciate Ukraine’s positive experience and are interested in cooperation and exchange of knowledge on how to protect whistleblowers, consider corruption reports and monitor the implementation of the anti-corruption strategy. During the online meeting on April 13, 2021, the heads of the Anti-Corruption Agency of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the National Agency on Corruption Prevention discussed the areas for future cooperation and agreed to sign a trilateral memorandum.

"The National Bureau was the first anti-corruption agency established after the Revolution of Dignity. Its work is based on the principles of justice, transparency and accountability, while its staff is recruited only through open competitions. After six years we already have positive results: corrupt officials get real prison terms and reimburse embezzled funds to the budget. In 2020, the economic effect of our work amounted to almost 2 billion hryvnias," said NABU Director Artem Sytnyk.

NACP Head Oleksandr Novikov spoke about the system that controls and checks public servant declarations, the modernization of the register of persons who commit corruption or corruption-related offenses, the introduction of an authorized subpision (person) for the prevention and exposure of corruption at state bodies, local governments, enterprises, institutions and organizations within the sphere of state management.

The work of the Anti-Corruption Agency of the Republic of Uzbekistan was presented by its Director Akmal Burkhanov. He stressed that the fight against corruption is one of the main objectives of the state policy of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The creation in June 2020 of the National Anti-Corruption Council along with its working body – the Anti-Corruption Agency – was one of its stages. The functions of the Agency are similar to that of Ukraine’s NACP. Moreover, it plans to implement a Compliance Control system within government bodies and in certain business sectors.

"The Agency is developing the electronic platform "E-Anticor.uz" intended to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of public authorities and anti-corruption management, as well as a special mobile application to help inform the Agency about corruption," Akmal Burkhanov said.