The organs of internal affairs on the way to combating corruption

On January 3, 2017, due to the political will of the President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On Combating Corruption” was adopted. This document states that the fight against this scourge is one of the priorities of government agencies, in particular the organs of internal affairs.

In the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, special attention was paid to the training of personnel capable to perform these responsible tasks. From the 2018/2019 academic year, full-time and part-time students of the Academy of the Ministry are taught the subject “Prevention of corruption in law enforcement bodies and the formation of anti-corruption behavior among officers”.

From the 2021/2022 academic year, the students of the organizational and tactical management of the Master’s degree of the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs study “Organization of combating corruption”, “Anti­corruption and compliance control” for students studying in the field of organizational and strategic management.

On February 11, 2020, the President held a meeting dedicated to the introduction of a new system of combating corruption. On the bases of the requirements of this meeting, systematic work was carried out to raise the legal awareness and legal culture of officers. In particular, the Ministry of Internal Affairs publishes articles on this topic under the headings “We are against corruption”, “Officers with the motto honesty”, “Bribes make a face black”. Enriching the morals of the officers is an important factor in building immunity against corruption. On April 2, 2021 the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan approved “Concept of the organization of spiritual and educational work in law enforcement bodies”. The concept, which is currently being implemented, will help officers to become loyal to their duty, able to fight corruption uncompromisingly, strong in faith and will, selfless and highly spiritual.

The essence of it lays the conceptual idea as “Serving the Motherland and the people is our supreme duty!”. Thus, a patriotic, loyal servant of the people will never be self-interested or bribe takers. Appropriate practical and organizational measures are being taken to form a concept among officers a principle “Corruption is against my career and my family, against my future!”.

By the end of 2021, more than 17,000 officers have been retrained. More than 2,000 crime prevention inspectors have been trained in mobile training courses.

Trainings on the formation of intolerant attitude of officers to corruption in all sectoral services of the system and educational institutions spiritual and enlightenment events on “Let’s unite in building New Uzbekistan free from corruption!” are being held. The films “Armon” (regret) and “The Last Regret is Your Enemy” were shown, dedicated to the tragic consequences of corruption. In combating corruption in law enforcement bodies, a special attention is paid to reducing the conditions and factors that cause it. In addition, public services provided by law enforcement bodies are gradually being transferred to the Public services centers.

An auction procedure has been established for the registration of state number plates for vehicles. There is also a lot of communication with citizens.

All officers of road patrol and patrol-post services are provided with body cameras and are used effectively in the prevention of accidents.

Requirements for taking an exam to obtain a national driver’s license, which entitles the holder to drive a vehicle, have been strengthened. In particular, the theoretical examination rooms are equipped with online surveillance, video surveillance and the necessary technical equipment, which allows to conduct online monitoring of the examination process. The installed video surveillance system serves to prevent corrupt practices and ensure transparency in the process, limiting the interference of officers in examinations and the issuance of state number plates.

A simplified procedure has been established for the recruitment of law enforcement officers, which provides for the elimination of cases of harassment of candidates. Previously, the candidate’s documents were considered for 6-7 months.

Now, according to the new procedure, the selection process is carried out within 30-40 days. In order to ensure transparency in this process, as a pilot project, a “Recruitment Center for Internal Affairs” was established under the Main office of internal affairs in Tashkent. Representatives of public organizations took part in the competition, and the process was broadcasted live to the parents of the candidates via video surveillance devices. Several types of anti-corruption propaganda materials have been prepared. Slides on the content of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On Combating Corruption”, posters “Corruption is a murder of development”, “Do not be a slave to your desires!”, “We, officers of internal affairs are against corruption!” booklets are among them. In order to form a strong immunity of officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs against corruption, special attention is paid to Spirituality and Enlightenment lessons.

Among the pupils of the academic lyceums of the Ministry of Internal Affairs competition of essays on “We are against corruption!”, “Corruption is a threat to the future”, “Corruption is a destructive way” and a competition of essays on the topic “Corruption is the destruction of society” were written.

Another novelty. The mechanism for citizens to report bribery to law enforcement officials has been worked out. Private security units are taking urgent measures in such cases. In particular, 1 such case was detected in 2017, 52 in 2018, 56 in 2019, 130 in 2020, and 203 in 2021, and citizens who tried to bribe officers were prosecuted. The officers who reported about it were encouraged by the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The issues of social protection and support of officers play an important role in preventing and combating corruption. Admittedly, in the past, there were many shortcomings in the system of social protection of officers. This, in its turn, negatively affected to the mood of the staff, causing young people to lose interest in the field of law enforcement. It is with great pleasure that I can say that radical changes are taking place in this direction. During 2021, 2,688 officers living in rent were paid apartment rents, and 466 officers were granted interest-free loans. At the same time, a total of 816 officers and servicemen were provided with apartments (147 servicemen were provided with preferential (low) prices and 669 servicemen were provided with down payments on the basis of mortgage loans).

During the first 4 months of this year, 856 officers were paid apartment rents, and 112 officers were granted interest-free loans. In addition, 270 officers were provided with preferential (low-cost) housing for the purchase of housing. 819 million soums were allocated to 144 officers injured during their service, as well as more than 3 billion 725 million soums to the families of 13 deceased officers. During the past period of this year, a total of 1,319 children of officers were given letters of recommendation and 537 letters of recommendation for admission to study outside the established quota.

Thus, over the past short period, the system of combating corruption in law enforcement bodies has been further improved. Significant results have been achieved not only by bringing the perpetrators to justice, but also by taking systematic preventive measures. At the same time, in accordance with the Development Strategy of New Uzbekistan, the main task of law enforcement bodies will be to identify areas and sectors prone to corruption, increase the effectiveness of the system to eliminate corruption, and actively participate in the formation of intolerance in society. In order to effectively fight against corruption in the future, it is necessary, first of all, to further increase the legal awareness and legal culture of officers, to strengthen intolerance of corruption. On the bases of an in-depth analysis of the risks of corruption, it is necessary to intensify legal advocacy in order to inform officers about this problem and its consequences.

It is also necessary to consistently continue to reduce the human factor through the widespread use of information and communication technologies in sectoral services that communicate directly with citizens on the tasks of the service, which are at high risk of corruption.

There is a need to intensify efforts to combat those who offer bribes to officers of the sector and pursue other illegal goals. At the same time, the issues of social support and financial incentives for officers are required to be in constant focus.

Increasing the accountability of leaders at all levels is also important in combating any form of corruption. Regular public opinion polls are needed to assess the level of trust in public authorities and the impact of anti-corruption measures.