Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev reviewed a presentation on proposals to enhance financial control over the expenditure of budgetary funds.
Modern crisis processes in the global economy significantly affect financial flows. The complexity of accumulation and utilization of resources is increasing, underscoring the importance of their efficient use, savings, and accuracy.
At a video-conference meeting held on 16 January 2024, addressing priority tasks in the economy, the head of state expressed particular interest in enhancing the efficiency of budget expenditures and gave instructions to strengthen financial control.
Currently, these functions are carried out by the Accounting Chamber of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Under the current system, external audits cover only budget expenditures and targeted funds, which constitute 86 percent of total expenditures.
It is proposed to expand the powers of the Accounting Chamber to include conducting external audits of the execution of the consolidated budget, including expenditures from extrabudgetary funds and borrowed funds.
There are plans to introduce the practice of strategic auditing into the activities of the Accounting Chamber, aimed at assessing risks associated with achieving national goals and programmatic tasks of state programs, as well as auditing information technologies to enhance software efficiency in government organizations.
Uzbekistan is home to approximately 30,000 budgetary organizations and state enterprises, necessitating significant time and financial resources for their monitoring. In this regard, a "Remote Control Center" has been implemented within the Accounting Chamber. It is also crucial to refine 36 criteria and indicators for risk analysis based on best international practices.
Substantial financial resources are allocated for regional development; however, local councils, when discussing budgets, often focus on regional or district budgets. This means that 65-70 percent of all funds allocated to each region from various sources remain outside their control.
In this context, it is noted that the Accounting Chamber should actively participate in budgetary discussions not only in the Oliy Majlis but also at the local level, in local councils.