Uzbekistan Passes Presidential Administration Law in First Reading

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — The Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis passed in the first reading on 4 August a draft constitutional law on the Administration of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Approval of the document required at least two-thirds of deputy votes, a threshold that was successfully reached. The draft law was not published for public discussion.

The document was presented by Jahongir Shirinov, chairman of the Committee on Anti-Corruption and Judicial-Legal Issues. He explained that the draft law was developed to implement Article 109 of the Constitution, which was amended to stipulate that the legal status, main tasks, operating procedures, and powers of the Presidential Administration must be defined by law. This amendment came into force on 25 July.

"The legal status of the Presidential Administration, which ensures the exercise of the president's powers, has not been defined at the level of law until now. As a result, its interaction with state bodies, enforcement of executive discipline, coordination, monitoring, and analytical activities were mainly regulated by subordinate acts," Shirinov said.

According to him, the adoption of the constitutional law will establish the legal foundation for these relationships and strengthen guarantees for the implementation of the president's constitutional powers.

The draft consists of 34 articles and defines the Presidential Administration as a state body that assists in the coordinated activity of government bodies and provides organizational, legal, and analytical support for the exercise of presidential powers. The administration is formed by the president, who also appoints and dismisses its head.

The document also defines the principles of the administration's activities, its structure, the procedure for interaction with government bodies and organizations, guarantees for employees, and relations with compliance and internal anti-corruption control units of state bodies.

According to the speaker, during the preparation of the draft, the experience of the United States, Finland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Latvia, Taiwan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan was studied. The adoption of the law will not require additional expenditure from the state budget, Shirinov added.

During the discussion, Javlonbek Abdullayev, a deputy from the Ecological Party, drew attention to Article 16 of the draft law, which regulates the administration's interaction with the Oliy Majlis. According to the version under discussion, the administration must organize legal, financial, anti-corruption, and other expert reviews of laws passed by parliament before they are submitted to the president for signature. Abdullayev proposed additionally including regulatory impact assessments; Shirinov stated that the issue would be studied ahead of the second reading.

Speaker Nuriddin Ismoilov raised the issue of the mandatory nature of repeated expert reviews, noting that the president has two months to sign a law and that the draft law might have already undergone review at earlier stages. He proposed making the relevant provision discretionary rather than mandatory and distinguishing in the text between laws already passed by parliament and documents that agencies are only submitting for consideration by the Presidential Administration. Shirinov agreed that the provision should not be unconditionally mandatory and promised to refine the wording.

UzLiDeP deputy Dilmurod Artykov asked about the mechanism of interaction between the administration and the compliance and internal anti-corruption control units of state bodies. Shirinov answered that the compliance service of the Presidential Administration will coordinate the activities of similar units in state bodies and organizations. The draft also provides that deputy heads of national-level state bodies responsible for compliance will be appointed and dismissed by the head of the Presidential Administration, which the speaker said should ensure the independence and impartiality of anti-corruption units.

Adolat Party deputy Oydin Abdullayeva proposed explicitly establishing in the law the Presidential Administration's interaction with local Kengashes of People's Deputies, as the draft details relations with the Council of Ministers of Karakalpakstan and khokimiyats, but not with local representative bodies.

Shirinov called the proposal justified, but noted that assisting the activities of local representative bodies is assigned to the powers of the Senate under the Constitution, and promised to consider the issue ahead of the second reading.

The relevant committee was instructed to accelerate the preparation of the document for the second reading.