The
legal basis for the regulation of relations in the sphere of the state civil service is being
improved
As it is known, on August
8, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed A Law “On State Civil Service” (hereinafter
referred to as the Law). The Law was adopted after a recent meeting hold by
President, at which he emphasized that the solution of problems in the field of
civil service has been postponed for 30 years. “The state civil service has not yet become a system that really
satisfies the people,” he said. At the same time, the President stated that
new Law had been improved for two years on the basis of deep discussions with
the involvement of local and foreign specialists. The Law consists of 10
chapters and 64 articles.
Under the Law, state
civil service means that a type of civil service, which is a professional paid
activity of citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan to ensure the exercise of
the powers of state bodies in the positions of the state civil service.
The Law applies to state
civil servants in positions entered in the State Register of Civil Service
Positions. The Law does not apply to activities of President,
deputies of the Legislative Chamber and senators, deputies of the Jokargy Kenes
of Karakalpakstan and other local representative bodies of state power,
employees of the apparatus of the Legislative Chamber and the Senate, members
of the Central Election Commission, judges and employees of the judiciary,
members of the Board of the Central Bank, civil servants serving in the bodies
prosecutor's office, internal affairs, defense, emergency situations, the
National Guard, the State Customs Service, the State Security Service and the
State Security Service of the President, including military personnel, as well
as employees of technical, production and maintenance personnel of state
bodies.
Generally, basic new norms of
abovementioned Law are:
firstly, the same rights,
duties and restrictions are introduced for state civil servants of all levels.
Restrictions are established on serving in one state body together with persons
who are closely or kindred, on engaging in entrepreneurial activities, on
opening and maintaining accounts outside the territory of the Republic of
Uzbekistan;
secondly, the legal
framework for the implementation of measures to prevent corruption in this area is being improved. In
particular, persons found guilty by the court of committing crimes related to
corruption cannot be accepted into the state civil service. Also, a
system of declaring income and property of a public civil servant will be
introduced;
thirdly, the grounds for entering and passing the
state civil service are determined. For
instance, vacancy of the state civil service is carried out on the basis of internal
and external competitions. A system of measurable indicators for evaluating the
performance of public civil servants will be introduced. A national personnel
reserve will be formed. State civil servants are given the qualification
degrees of state civil service positions based on the groups and categories of
state civil service positions;
fourthly, the circumstances in which recruitment to
the state civil service is not possible are clearly defined by
law.
Including, persons found guilty by the court of committing corruption offences;
persons who have not been convicted of grave and especially grave crimes or
whose conviction has not been canceled or withdrawn cannot be accepted into the
state civil service.
Fifthly, the procedure for bringing employees to
disciplinary responsibility is also changing by law. In particular, in
accordance with Article 181 of the Labor Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan, a
fine in the amount of not more than 50% of the average monthly salary may be
imposed. However, according to Article 46 of the Law, the amount of the fine
should not exceed 30 % of the average monthly wage.
Sixthly, with the Law, the duration of the vacation
of employees is also changing. Under the Article 54 of the Law, a state
civil servant is now granted annual basic leave of at least twenty-seven
calendar days. Moreover, the state civil servant is given annual additional
work holidays for many years of service and special working conditions.
In conclusion, it can be
said that the Law is of great importance
in creating a completely new, efficient and high-quality functioning system of
public administration. At the same time, in our opinion, the implementation
of the Law serves not only to form an effective system of professional public
service, but also to introduce more effective mechanisms to fight corruption in
the system of state bodies. It is worth noting that the Law is planned to enter
into force on November 10, 2022.
Chief legal adviser of the Legal service of the
Council of Ministers of the Republic of Karakalpakstan A. Imatov