AKIPRESS.COM - Uzbekistan is among nations that do not meet the minimum requirements of fiscal transparency, according to the 2019 Fiscal Transparency Report of the US. Department of State.
In addition to Uzbekistan, 67 other nations do not meet the minimum requirements of fiscal transparency: Azerbaijan, China, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia and others.
The minimum requirements of fiscal transparency include having key budget documents that are publicly available, substantially complete, and generally reliable. The review includes an assessment of the transparency of processes for awarding government contracts and licenses for natural resource extraction. Fiscal transparency is a critical element of effective public financial management, helps build market confidence, and underpins economic sustainability. Fiscal transparency fosters greater government accountability by providing a window into government budgets for citizens, helping citizens hold their leadership accountable, and facilitating better-informed public debate.
The Report analyzes the work of 140 governments, to which the U.S. provided financial assistance from January 1 to December 31, 2018.
Uzbekistan made significant progress by publishing its executive budget proposal. During the review period, the government made its executive budget proposal, enacted budget, and end-of-year report widely and easily accessible to the general public, including online. Information on debt obligations, including contingent and state-owned enterprise debt, was not publicly available. Publicly available budget documents did not provide a substantially complete picture of the government's planned expenditures and revenue streams. Budget documents did not include detailed information on expenditures by ministry or information on allocations to or earnings from state-owned enterprises. Detailed information on natural resource revenues and the government's off-budget accounts was not publicly available. The budget did not include information on expenditures to support executive offices. It is not possible to assess the reliability of the budget due to the lack of publicly available information. Uzbekistan's supreme audit institution had a legal mandate to review the government's annual budget execution, but its reports were not publicly available. The criteria and procedures by which the national government awards natural resource extraction contracts or licenses were not specified in law, regulation, or other public documents, preventing review of whether the government followed applicable laws and regulations in practice. Basic information on natural resource extraction awards was not always publicly available.
Uzbekistan's fiscal transparency would be improved by:
- making information on debt obligations publicly available,
- including detailed information on expenditures by ministry as well as information on allocations to and earnings from state-owned enterprises in budget documents,
- ensuring budget documents are reliable,
- producing and publishing audit reports of the government's executed budget within a reasonable period of time,
- fully outlining the criteria and procedures for allocating natural resource extraction licenses and contracts in law or regulation and following them in practice, and
- making basic information about such awards publicly available.
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