From April 1, 2019, the Prosecutor General’s Office will cease to coordinate business inspections. Powers passed to the Ombudsman for protecting the rights and legitimate interests of business entities under the President.
Decisions of the business ombudsman on inspections are binding on the regulatory authorities, Norma writes citing the presidential decree.
Taking into account the moratorium on audits of financial-economic activities until the end of 2019, this means that from April 1, the business ombudsman will begin to give consent to business audits on complaints of the law violation, as well as the results of risk analysis, extend and postpone the dates of these audits. Without his consent, such checks are illegal.
The single information system of electronic registration of inspections is also transferred to the ombudsman for protecting the rights and legal interests of business entities.
In the period from March 16 to March 31, 2019, the prosecutor’s office will coordinate the business inspections. Timed examination and thematic express studies do not apply to types of inspections. Therefore, the tax authorities, as before, will conduct these control measures without coordination.
In addition, the business ombudsman will monitor the legality of business inspections. This implies, among other things, the authority to issue protocols on administrative violations under Article 241-2 of the Administrative Responsibility Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan (violation of the procedure for conducting inspections and audits of the financial-economic activities of business entities).
However, the role of prosecution in this process will remain high. Article 192-2 of the Criminal Code (violation of the procedure for conducting inspections and audits of financial-economic activities of business entities) is under the jurisdiction of investigators of the prosecutor's office (see Part 2 of Article 345 of the Code of Criminal Procedural Code). Therefore, the decision to initiate a criminal case for illegal verification is taken by the prosecutor's office.
Within the framework of its general powers, the prosecutor’s office has the right to take measures of the prosecutor’s response for any law violation. In this regard, it is also permissible to file complaints about inspections with the prosecutor’s office.
The regulatory framework for business audits will also change. The Government is entrusted within a month to develop a Regulation on the procedure for agreeing on and conducting audits of the activities of business entities by regulatory authorities. Until it is accepted, the Temporary Regulation on the procedure for agreeing on and carrying out inspections by controlling bodies of the activities of business entities will remain in force.
The exercise of public control over the legality of inspections in the activities of business entities is entrusted to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI). It should be reminded that powers of the CCI in these matters are enshrined in Article 14 of the law “On the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Uzbekistan”.
