Procedures of government support of the NGO’s activity in Uzbekistan

June 04, 2007

The government of the Republic of Uzbekistan actively realizes the principle “From a strong state to a strong civil society”. The role and significance of the civil society institutions in strengthening the democratic values in the conscience of people, enhancing their political and civil activeness, expanding and deepening the scale of ongoing democratic reforms in the country are rather big.

At the moment, one may note that alongside with the development of the state governance institutions in Uzbekistan the making of structural elements of civil society is underway. One of the main elements is non-state and non-profit organizations (NGOs). The very existence of social or non-governmental sector in the society testifies to that the society had accepted the democratic principles of governance.

The government of Uzbekistan pays a special attention to the creation of favorable legal norms aimed at supporting the civil society, as well as developing the NGOs. As a result of these measures, the NGOs are actively developing and their participation in the decisionmaking process is ensured. Thus, they play a substantial role in the democratization of society.

Over ten laws, which regulate the activities of the NGOs, have been adopted in Uzbekistan and the state ensures the observance of their rights and lawful interests, creates for them equal legal opportunities to participate in public life.

At the moment, more than 5,000 non-state and non-profit organizations including the foreign NGOs are operating in Uzbekistan.
In June 2005 the Association of non-state and non-profit organizations of Uzbekistan was established on the initiative of over 150 national NGOs in the country. The Association represents their interests in their relations with the state.

The Fund for support of the non-state and non-profit organizations of Uzbekistan has been established the same year. The establishment of the Fund is aimed at further developing the institutions of civil society, strengthening their role in addressing the socially significant issues, enhancing the social and political activeness of the people, as well as attracting funding and rendering support for the activity of the NGOs.

With a view of further strengthening the resource and technical base of the NGO’s on April 28, 2007 the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan adopted a Decree “On approval the Statute on state support of the non-state non-profit organizations in Uzbekistan”.

The Decree has been adopted within the framework of realization the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On guarantees of the activity of non-state and non-profit organizations” and defines the order of rendering the state support by means of allocating subsidies, grants and social orders to the non-state and non-profit organizations.

According to the Decree, the NGOs which have passed the legal procedure of state registration with the bodies of justice and have been included in the single list of juridical entities, which have been practicing the socially significant activity and participating in the development of institutions of civil society for not less than a one year can apply for the state support.
The NGOs, which applied to the Cabinet of Ministers for the state support, must indicate the goals for which the requested finances will be utilized.

The state subsidies are allocated and utilized only for the realization of the NGO’s goals and objectives, which are envisaged in their charter including the current maintenance, strengthening of resource and technical base, and carrying out the socially significant events. For this within 15 days following the adoption of State budget the NGOs have to file a written request to the Cabinet of Ministers for the allocation of state subsidies to support their activity.

Within a one month from the receipt of such request the Cabinet of Ministers shall adopt the relevant decision upon considering the views of the Ministries of Justice and Finance.

Given the affirmative decision the Ministry of Finance ensures funding within the approved volumes, and in conjunction with the Ministry of Justice undertakes control over the purposeful spending of funding.

The state grants shall be allocated to the NGOs on the competitive basis for the implementation of projects aimed at socially useful objectives.

Within 15 days from the adoption of State budget the Cabinet of Ministers alongside with determining the volume of grants assigns the coordinators, who shall be empowered to undertake the competitive selection of projects to be implemented by the NGOs for the state grants.

In this both the bodies of state power and governance, and associations and unions of NGOs, which enjoy a national status (the National association of non-state and non-profit organizations, the National association of electronic mass media, the Public fund for support and development of independent print media and news agencies, and other) can be the coordinators.

To receive the state grant the NGOs shall file to the coordinator-established Commission the request in line with provisions and dates defined as such by the terms of the contest both on the Coordinator projects and those proposed by NGOs themselves.
Each NGO may receive only one state grant during a one year.

The state social orders shall be placed by way of concluding an agreement with NGOs to implement the socially significant projects.

The Cabinet of Ministers approves the list and volume of funding allocated for the state social orders due for implementation by the NGOs. At the same time the Cabinet of Ministers defines either the list of state bodies (customers) on the contracts, which imply the implementation of social orders, or the list of NGOs – the executors of the social order (in case if the Cabinet of Ministers shall act as a customer).

To obtain a social order (if the customer is not the Cabinet of Ministers) the NGOs within a one month following the approval of the social orders to be implemented by NGOs shall file the grounded applications to the customers to fulfil the social order.

The customer upon considering the views of Ministries of Justice and Finance assigns the executors of the state social order and makes with them the respective contracts (agreements) for the fulfillment of a certain social order.

Thus, the complex of measures aimed at the progressive development of institutions of civil society and the active participation of NGOs in the democratisation of society in Uzbekistan is gradually being realized.
 

Chart on allocation of state subsidies to NGOs

 

NGOs file requests to the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan to obtain the state subsidies

 

The Cabinet of Ministers submits the NGO’s request for the consideration to the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Finance

 

Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Finance submit the respective conclusions on each NGO to the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan

The Cabinet of Ministers on considering the conclusions makes a decision on allocating the state subsidies to the NGOs and files it to the Ministry of Finance

Ministry of Finance within the limits of the allocated volume of subsidies grants the funding to the respective NGOs

 

Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Finance undertake a control over purposeful use of funding allocated for the NGOs as state subsidies