OSCE supports anti-corruption policy development in Uzbekistan

TASHKENT, 12 September 2013 – An OSCE-organized national training course for government officials and civil society representatives on increasing integrity and preventing corruption in public service started today in Tashkent.

The two-day course is held by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan and the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities together with the Office of the Prosecutor General of Uzbekistan. High-level experts from anti-corruption agencies and other governmental and non-governmental structures from Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Serbia, as well as from the UN Office of Drugs and Crime  shared their experiences with the event participants.

Some forty representatives of NGOs, academia and government agencies, including  the General Prosecutor's Office, the Supreme Court, the Ministries of Justice, Finance, Education, Interior as well as the Academy of Science and the National Human Rights Centre, discussed how to develop anti-corruption strategies and action plans, create  anti-corruption agencies and promote transparency and integrity in the public sector.

Ambassador György Szabó, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan: “The most effective way to combat corruption and foster responsible societies is to  ensure transparency and accountability of governments.”

“Participants of today’s event will be able to learn from the experience of the countries recently implemented anti-corruption strategies in their legislation and have unique opportunity to discuss how these initiatives can be applied elsewhere.”

In the Concept on National Security of Uzbekistan, corruption was defined as a threat to national security. The Republic of Uzbekistan has ratified United Nations Convention against Corruption in 2008.