Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- In 2019 and the first half of 2020, the Ministry of Preschool Education has submitted materials on 904 audits to law enforcement agencies. Today in Uzbekistan there are about 6 thousand state preschool educational institutions, which employ 223,000 people. The specialists of the Ministry of Preschool Education (MDO) internal audit service continue to work to rid the preschool education system of unscrupulous employees.

The preschool education system has been in an unsatisfactory state for many years. Lack of oversight has led to abuse and theft. To combat them, an internal audit service was created on 30 September 2017, reporting directly to the Minister of Preschool Education.

At the beginning of 2020, MDO analyzed the identified offenses for 2018-2019 and made a number of proposals to the government. On the initiative of the MDO, together with the Accounts Chamber, an in-depth study of the effectiveness of the use of budget funds was carried out with the involvement of specialists from other ministries and departments. The amount of violations revealed during the joint audit amounted to 48.3 billion soums.

“Since its inception, MDO has been fighting corruption and abuses on the ground. We periodically publish information on violations discovered by employees of the internal audit service. Last year, the ministry sent materials to law enforcement agencies on 680, and this year - on 224 checks. The prosecutor’s office opened a number of criminal and administrative cases, and the MDO fired managers and accountants who committed financial offenses. In 2019, 9.5 billion soums were collected from the perpetrators in favor of the budget, and in the first half of 2020 - 4.1 billion soums,” said Dilshod Normatov, head of the MDO’s internal audit service.

In 2019, the Internal Audit Service of MDO identified financial violations in the amount of 31.6 billion soums, including:

1.Theft, shortages and illegal expenses - 19.3 billion soums;

2. Offenses in the field of public procurement - 7.1 billion soums;

3. Other violations - 5.2 billion soums.

The Ministry of Preschool Education, together with the Accounting Chamber, approved the Roadmap for the prevention, detection and elimination of financial violations. The document was approved by 14 ministries and departments. Also, a Roadmap for improving the anti-corruption system in preschool education was developed and agreed with the General Prosecutor’s Office.