During a meeting Monday, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced a list of measures aimed at transforming the construction industry into a “corruption-free sphere,” according to his spokesperson Sherzod Asadov.
The following initiatives are effective July 1:
- All construction contracts will be digitized;
- Construction work performed by contractors will be financed solely based on an electronic invoice submitted to the tax authority;
- The project acceptance process will be digitized and documents will be validated through the “Shaffof Qurilish” (“Transparent Construction”) system;
- Subcontractors for projects exceeding 10 billion soums will be selected exclusively through the “Transparent Construction” system. This procedure will also apply to projects implemented with international financial organizations;
- A system will be created to allow manufacturers, builders and supervisors to track the cost of construction materials online.
To enhance organization in the sphere of construction design, a project office will be established in the Ministry of Construction, Housing and Communal Services. The office will:
- evaluate, together with designers, their compliance with safety and energy efficiency standards, as well as the absence of artificial overpricing, in case of developing projects valued over 10 billion soums;
- annually develop a minimum of two-three model projects across sectors such as school and pre-school education, healthcare, road construction, drinking water supply and heat supply.
The president stated that project documents will now require the recommendation of the project office to undergo state expertise.
He directed the update of 105 outdated construction norms considering the best foreign practices.
The Prosecutor General’s Office received directions to establish a system aiming “to eradicate the shadow economy in all processes, spanning from the extraction of building materials to the delivery of finished products to a consumer.”
Additional directives include implementing a procedure for all budgetary purchases through the “E-ombor” (“E-Aktiv”) platform of the Tax Committee and launching an electronic platform for the classification of construction materials.
The head of state commented that the current conditions in construction force developers to operate in the “shadow,” inflate project costs. He noted the pervasiveness of corruption in all processes related to design, tendering, construction and project acceptance. The new initiative considers replacing the “resource-based method” with the “volume-based method.
The “resource-based method” encompasses numerous conditions, including factors such as the required workforce for constructing a school, the quantity of fuel and equipment necessary and specifications for the types of equipment to be utilized.
The “volume-based method” revolves around the final result specified by the contractor. The primary focus is on the developer delivering the facility punctually and with high-quality standards, as outlined in the report.
To recall, the project “Corruption-free Sphere” was launched as an experiment in capital construction and higher education on August 1, 2019. The project was set to gradually expand to other sectors in Uzbekistan from April 1, 2020.
