US Department of State recommends Uzbekistan to provide information on expenses of ministries

Uzbekistan is on the list of countries that do not meet the minimum fiscal transparency requirements of the US Department of State.

In addition to Uzbekistan, 67 other countries are included in the annual State Department report on transparency. There are Azerbaijan, China, Iraq, Turkmenistan and Saudi Arabia among them.

The document analyzes the work of 140 governments to which the United States provided financial assistance from January 1 to December 31, 2018. 

The report said that Uzbekistan has made progress in promulgating its budget, but it still does not contain detailed information on planned expenses and revenues.

In addition, data on profits from natural resources and information on off-budgetary state accounts are not disclosed in the budget.

The US Department of State recommends that Uzbekistan should provide information on its debt obligations and expenses of ministries to ensure fiscal transparency.

Recently, Kun.uz also conducted an express survey in the Telegram channel “Your opinion”. Uzbek people were asked for a point of view on the openness of the budget. 2,918 people expressed their opinions.

51% of the respondents believe that the budget in Uzbekistan is “secret and closed”. 40% of them said that nothing is clear in the budget of Uzbekistan, that is, many do not have a concrete idea of the costs and revenues.

In addition, 4% said they know where government agencies spend money. 3% are absolutely not interested in the budget. 2% noted that all organizations regularly publish income and expense reports.