The Anti-Corruption Agency hosted July 21 the first meeting of the Commission for Evaluating Effectiveness and Efficiency of Ongoing Work in Ensuring Openness.

The Commission was established in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan dated June 14, 2022 ‘On measures to introduce a system for increasing and assessing the level of openness of the activities of government agencies and organizations’, which is considered the body that reviews the results of the assessment of the Index of openness of government agencies and organizations, and accepts final decision on the Openness Index.

Also, the responsibilities of the Evaluation Commission include reviewing the work done and planned new projects in the field of openness, discussing their implementation and providing practical assistance in this matter, as well as, based on the analysis and public opinion survey, determining measures to expand the scope of information to be placed as open data, improve their quality and ensure their relevance.

In accordance with the Decree, in addition to employees of ministries and departments directly involved in the assessment, the Commission includes representatives of the Legislative Chamber and the Senate of the Oliy Majlis, as well as representatives of nongovernmental and nonprofit organizations.

Welcoming the meeting participants, Akmal Burkhanov, Director of the Anti-Corruption Agency, spoke about the tasks assigned to the Commission, important aspects that should be taken into account in their effective implementation, and the need to ensure unconditional observance of the principles of legitimacy, neutrality, objectivity and reliability when making a final decision on the Openness Index.

Within the framework of the issues included in the agenda of the first meeting of the Commission, its members were introduced, the candidates for the Deputy Chairman of the Commission and the Executive Secretary were considered and approved.

In addition, the meeting reviewed and approved the Action Plan of the Evaluation Commission for the calculation of the Openness Index 2022.

The meeting participants noted that the Action Plan is aimed at ensuring the full, timely and high-quality implementation of the tasks defined in the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No.DP-54, and it clearly defines the tasks, deadlines and mechanisms for implementation, as well as methods for coordinating government agencies involved in each assessment.

In the final part of the meeting, systemic shortcomings in ensuring openness and publication of open data by government agencies and organizations for the last six months of 2022 were discussed.

The cases identified as a result of the study and remote monitoring carried out by the Agency’s specialists were considered in detail, as well as proposals were made on their elimination.

By the end of the year, the Anti-Corruption Agency will publish an Openness Index, and organizations with the highest scores on 8 indicators will be rewarded, while organizations with negative scores will be held accountable.

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The Anti-Corruption Agency