President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev chaired a videoconference on reforming the civil service and improving management efficiency.
This is a logical continuation of the administrative reform carried out in recent years. Thanks to the course conducted by the President, civil servants have become much closer to citizens. Systems of dialogue with the people, distribution of part of the budget funds based on the initiatives of the population, work in the context of mahallas have been established. Appropriate conditions have been created for the effective work of civil servants.
In his speech at a joint meeting of the chambers of the Oliy Majlis, the head of state noted that “the next important task is to create a compact and efficient management system focused on the needs of citizens by transforming the central departments.”
Currently, 118 thousand people work in the state civil service. However, the civil service has not yet become a system that meets the expectations of the people.
For example, last year the People’s Reception Offices received 25,000 complaints about the incompetence and irresponsibility of employees of ministries and departments, 7,000 complaints about their lack of a culture of communication.
Some officials do not cope with their duties due to the lack of a comprehensive system for identifying competencies, training and improving performance. In general, the lack of a system for selecting, training and motivating managers remains one of the main reasons for the poor quality of management.
After a two-year development with the involvement of domestic and foreign experts, on the basis of a comprehensive discussion, the Law “On the State Civil Service” was prepared.
The meeting determined the priority tasks facing the state bodies based on the requirements of this law.
First of all, an open and transparent system of recruitment to state bodies will be introduced. To this end, by the end of the year, all vacant positions will be posted on a single open electronic platform. The requirement to provide 16 documents for participation in the competition for a vacant position will be canceled, all processes will be transferred to electronic form. The knowledge, experience and potential of the candidate will be evaluated in an open competition.
This system was tested on an experimental basis in Samarkand region and the State Tax Committee. At the meeting, responsible persons spoke about the results of the experiment. It was noted that each ministry and khokimiyat should start the selection of personnel from higher educational institutions.
In order to establish systematic work in this direction, a program for the selection of young specialists will be announced. Within the framework of the program, talented graduate students will be selected, who will undergo an internship in the system of ministries and khokimiyats, and after training they will be hired. The program will also cover young people studying abroad.
As the analysis showed, 40 percent of the heads of the central offices of the ministries did not work at the district level, and 60 percent of the heads of the district level have no experience of working in the regional or republican departments. Therefore, the President emphasized the need to pay special attention to the promotion of personnel in the service on the principle of “from mahalla to the republican level.”
For this, from 1 November, the old-style lens certificate will be canceled and a system for assessing the qualifications and achievements of an employee based on advanced technologies will be used. Simply put, no one can take a leadership position by accident.
A reserve of potential personnel for leadership positions at the district and city levels will also be created, which will be replenished from among the assistants to khokims and youth leaders in mahallas. Depending on their competence, targeted qualification courses will be organized for them.
The Civil Service Development Agency, the Agency for Youth Affairs were tasked with implementing the 100 Advanced Leaders program together with the Vatandoshlar Foundation. Within the framework of this program, 100 promising young personnel will be selected every two years from among civil servants, active entrepreneurs and compatriots abroad.
As you know, in our country the priority is the principle of “man – society – state”. Measures are being taken to make people feel comfortable in all areas. In particular, it has become much easier to obtain licenses, order services, submit documents to various authorities, and use payment systems.
But many areas remain bureaucratized. For example, in order to receive a subsidy, conclusions are required from an average of 10 ministries and departments. Connecting to electrical networks is associated with extra costs and paperwork. In medicine, it is not clear to citizens which service is free or paid, there is no clear system for calculating and delivering medicines from the state. There are many processes that are inconvenient for the population and entrepreneurs in the field of construction, transport, utilities, standardization and quarantine.
Therefore, the Prime Minister was instructed to make service processes in each ministry and khokimiyat understandable and convenient, to reduce unnecessary costs and documents.
– The main requirement is the satisfaction of people, – said Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
There is a growing desire among our people for active participation in the development of the country, improvement of the mahalla. For example, thanks to the Open Budget portal, civil initiatives are brought to life. In the first half of this year, more than 2,000 such projects were launched. Most importantly, people are aware of their involvement in them and carefully use the built infrastructure.
It is planned to allocate another 1 trillion soums for such projects in the next six months. Therefore, before the responsible persons put the challenge is to expand the scope of proactive budgeting.
As the private sector grows in the economy, the need for skilled labor increases. In this competitive market, the civil service must also be attractive.
Therefore, the President stressed that guarantees for the activities of civil servants would also be strengthened.
In particular, from next year a system of incentives will be introduced depending on the experience, qualifications and results of the employee. Their life and health will be insured by the state. Civil servants who honestly and conscientiously fulfill their duties will be guaranteed a decent old age. The issue of training and advanced training of civil servants will also be touched upon.
So far, only 20 percent of civil servants have undergone advanced training. Does not meet the requirements and the quality of education.
In this regard, the importance of creating joint educational programs with foreign training centers was noted. Instructions were given to review the activities of 110 training centers in the system of ministries, update curricula and methods, and involve qualified specialists in training.