Photo: Press Service of the President of Uzbekistan
The dismissal of Uzbekistan’s Minister of Emergency Situations, Abdulla Kuldashev, was due to growing bureaucracy and legal violations, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced during a meeting of the National Anti-Corruption Council on March 5, according to the presidential press service.
Mirziyoyev stated that Kuldashev and his deputies were removed from office because of increasing bureaucratic inefficiencies within the ministry and violations of fire safety regulations in the issuance of construction permits and project approvals.
For instance, citizens seeking land allocations were required to make repeated visits to regional administration heads and navigate a maze of various agencies. The entire sector, the president noted, had become a hotbed of corruption.
Mirziyoyev identified the construction sector as one of the most corruption-prone and highlighted positive developments following the introduction of the «Transparent Construction» program.
“Previously, the number of contractors involved in projects under the investment program barely reached a thousand. Last year, over 4,000 contractors participated in the construction of 13,500 projects. In the past four years, the digitalization of the sector has saved 3.6 trillion soums ($280 million) in budget funds,” the president stated.
