Head of Department of the Institute of Legislative Problems and Parliamentary Research under the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan
In recent years, the Republic of Uzbekistan has undergone many democratic reforms in the system of public administration. Obviously, the powers of the parliament have been further enhanced, new forms of parliamentary control have been introduced; a system of executive power that truly serves the people was established; the functioning of a fair judiciary has been established. It should be noted that the most important and historic result of the reforms implemented in Uzbekistan is the introduction of a new system of listening to the people and communicating with them.
In 2017-2021, Uzbekistan has established its own positive experience in communicating with the nation. At the heart of the reforms the President Shavkat Mirziyoyev established the system of public administration, which supports priorities of “achieving the people’s thankfulness, listening to their concerns and finding solutions to the problems of the population.” We can reach this in the following important aspects:
First, due to the initiative of the President, the first year of the Action Strategy for the five priority areas of development of the Republic of Uzbekistan for 2017-2021, 2017 was named as the “Year of dialogue with the people and the interests of man.”
In order to work closely with the population in 2017, the State Program, which includes 320 priorities was adopted and the most important tasks in the field of communication with the people were clearly identified. In 2017, 37,687.8 billion soums and 8,349.3 million US dollars were allocated to address serios issues that have been on the minds of the people for many years, but have not been resolved.
Second, new methods of working with people have been created.
In accordance with the Decree PF-4904 adopted in December 28, 2016
“On measures to transform the system of dealing with appeals of individuals and legal entities”, the Republic of Karakalpakstan, regions and the city of Tashkent, as well as in each district and city the activities of the reception were launched, and republican working groups were formed to be responsible for their activities.
The fact that in 2017-2018 more than 2.5 million appeals received to the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan indicates that the new mechanism of communication with the people is reasonable.
Furthemore, to deal with the population’s problems along with concerns effectively, district leaders have been assigned to the sectors where each disrict as well as city are divided into four sectors.
Third, the national legislation governing the legal handling of appeals has been thoroughly modified.
Over the past years, a total of 11 legislative acts were adopted, including 1 law, 2 decrees and resolutions of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and
8 resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Moreover, all departments and organizations have accepted relevant departmental regulations.
In particular, on September 11, 2017, a new version of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On appeals of individuals and legal entities” was adopted.
In contrast to the previous version of the law, the adoption of the new version of the Law is significant in the following positive aspects:
The areas in which the law applies and the basic principles of consideration of ap peals have been clearly defined;
- the legal status, main directions and tasks, rights and obligations of the People’s Reception and Virtual Reception of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan have been introduced;
- the procedure for organizing virtual receptions of state bodies, organizations and their officials have been established, the scope of rights and obligations of the state body, organization and their officials in the consideration of appeals have been expanded;
- guarantees for the right to appeal have been strengthened, and new mechanisms have been established to ensure the rights of individuals and legal entities in the consideration of appeals;
- sanctions for violations of the law on appeals have been reinforced.
Fourth, communicating with the people was identified as the most important task of leaders at all levels.
In accordance with the instructions of the head of our state, communication with the people in every ministry, department and organization has been identified as a priority for civil servants, starting from the head. Therefore, new structures (departments and divisions) in the field of public relations have been established in ministries and departments, new positions specializing in this area have been introduced, regulations on the procedure for dealing with appeals of individuals and legal entities in government agencies and institutions have been approved.
Fifth, the practice of door-to-door system to deal with the people’s issues has been introduced.
As a result of the introduction of this practice, many socio-economic issues have been resolved. Particularly, housing was provided for those who need, thousands of unemployed people were trained to gain jobs, modern infrastructure for decent living was formed in hundreds of villages and auls, educational institutions were connected to the world Internet, spiritual and youth centers were opened in rural areas and libraries were built.
On the instructions of the President, the heads of public authorities also went from house to house and organized meetings with citizens. Many issues raised at the meetings were resolved at the time of meetings. New mechanisms have been introduced to monitor the implementation of appeals and keep them on the agenda until they are answered.
Sixth, in the process of norm-setting, a system was created that took into account the ideas and initiatives of the population.
In the process of creating norms in Uzbekistan, the noble idea that “the sole author of legislation should be the people” has been implemented. A system has been introduced to ensure that each draft of normative legal act is not adopted without discussion with the general public. In particular:
In order to improve the existing legislation through dialogue with the public, The portal for the discussion of draft regulations was launched;
According to July 16, 2021, a total of about 38,800 proposals were received from citizens on the normative documents posted on the portal.
On April 20, 2018, in order to ensure the participation of the people in the legislative process, the electronic collective appeal portal “My opinion” was launched; the web portal received more than 5,100 offers from citizens until July 16, 2021.
After receiving offers, appropriate practical measures have been taken on more than 500 of them, and positive decisions have been made by the competent state bodies.
On July 9, 2021, in order to ensure public awareness of all information in the budget system and support the initiatives of the people in the formation of budgets, the portal of the Republic of Uzbekistan “Open Budget” was created.
Also, according to the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan on May 14, 2019 “On measures to transform the system of support and protection of entrepreneurial activity”, in accordance with the Decree No. PF-5718, receptions for consideration of appeals of entrepreneurs of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan were established. The establishment of receptions serves for the consideration and positive resolution of appeals of business entities and investors.
In June 2021, the reforms implemented by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev for the noble cause of pleasing the people were recognized by 100 high-level international experts as 10 vital initiatives. One of these important initiatives is the new dialogue with the people and effective mechanisms – the introduction of the People’s Reception and Virtual Reception of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan
It should be noted that today in the Republic of Uzbekistan, the reforms of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in the field of public administration are carried out in with the noble idea that “Living with concern for the people is the highest criterion of humanity”.