The decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. 5527 abolishes 81 interdepartmental collegiate bodies, alongside defining that another 25 will go through an optimization process starting from October 1, 2018. Some existing licensing bodies were also included to the list.

In order to avoid duplicating the powers of such bodies, the Cabinet of Ministers conducted an inventory (as per Annex 1). The powers of some to-be-abolished bodies were transferred to other existing bodies or to relevant ministries, e.g. Interdepartmental Council on Tourism is being abolished, and its power will be transferred to the Coordinating Council on Development of Tourism and State Committee on Development of Tourism. Where it was appropriate, such interdepartmental bodies were abolished completely, with respective transfer of their obligations to the relevant ministries, e.g. Republican Commission on Monitoring of Realization of Reforms and Licensing in the Sphere of Construction is being abolished, and its authority will be transferred to Ministry of Construction.

The Cabinet of Ministers, Ministry of Justice and other interested ministries will analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of existing interdepartmental bodies annually. Further, they will make a report on optimization or otherwise elimination of such bodies.

It was emphasized in the Decree that interdepartmental bodies were initially created in order to assist the competent ministries. However, due to the lack of clear prescriptions on their creation, duplication of their activities and inactivity from most of them by virtue of their irrelevance, they are negatively affecting reforms in this country.

Earlier, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan had criticized the actions of governmental bodies and local authorities specifically with regard to various meetings that they are conducting, and instructed them to develop specific working regulations with a two-hours limit duration of the meetings of a republican character.

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