Within the framework of the agreements reached in February 2020, between the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on assessing the current public investment management procedure in the Republic of Uzbekistan, with the subsequent development of measures to create an effective system of control over public investment (Public Investment Management Assessment - PIMA), in accordance with the established schedule from September 2 to September 22, 2020, the Ministry of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction organized meetings of the IMF mission with the relevant ministries and departments, in the video-conference mode (VKS), according to the assessment of the management system in the Republic of Uzbekistan public investment.

At the same time, earlier the IMF specialists sent questions and tables for filling, which were provided by the Ministry of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction to the IMF specialists through the IMF office in Uzbekistan.

The IMF mission consisted of 7 specialists:

Amanda Saye - Chief of Mission, Senior Economist, Public Financial Management, IMF Fiscal Department;

Chishiro Matsumoto - Advisor to the IMF's Fiscal Department;

Jonathan Seywold - Senior Public Finance and Budgeting Expert, Budget Office of the Australian Parliament;

Willie Renier Du Prize - IMF Public Financial Management Expert;

Di Hai - auditor of the European Council of Auditors;

John Zorab, Regional Advisor on Public Financial Management, IMF Fiscal Department;

Nurber Kurmanaliev is Senior Procurement Specialist, World Bank.

The main meetings in the VKS format were held with the Ministry of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade and the Reconstruction Fund and Development of Uzbekistan (FRDU), with whom the issues on public investments and their management were discussed, in particular:

a) with the Ministry of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction regarding:

- National and sectoral planning;

- Evaluation of projects and existing methodology;

- Methodologies for assessing maintenance needs

and identifying significant improvements to existing assets and their budgetary funding;

- Project selection criteria;

- Roles of the Ministry of Economic Development in reviewing project evaluations;

- Roles of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade in project implementation and supervision;

- Monitoring of completed projects;

- The current procedure for adjusting projects;

- Priorities for completing current capital projects over new projects, etc.

b) with the Ministry of Finance regarding:

- Budgetary coverage of capital expenditures;

- Preparation of current and capital budgets;

- Accounting for the capital budget in the Annual Budget Law and Appropriation Structure;

- Maximum debt levels and fiscal rules;

- Rules for capital transfers of local governments;

- Multi-year forecasts of capital budgets;

- Forecasting cash and financing of capital projects;

- Integration of donor-funded capital projects;

- Regulatory framework for public-private partnership (PPP), preparation, selection and management of PPP projects;

- General issues of planning and development of PPP;

- Planning and management of capital projects and PPPs at the local level and coordination of capital budget planning with local authorities;

- Roles of the Ministry of Finance in national and sectoral planning;

- Methodologies for assessing maintenance needs

and identifying significant improvements to existing assets and their budgetary funding;

- Public procurement;

- Regulatory framework for competition in economic infrastructure markets;

- Accounting for non-financial assets in the annual performance report and scheduled financial statements;

- Accounting for depreciation of fixed assets, etc.

c) with the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade regarding:

- Roles in the preparation and selection of capital projects financed

from external sources;

- Evaluation of projects at the expense of IFI funds and the existing methodology;

- Roles of MIFT in checking evaluations of externally funded projects;

- Roles of MIVT in project implementation and supervision;

- Post-investment monitoring of completed projects.

d) with the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan, regarding:

- Roles of the Fund in financing capital projects;

- Approaches to the selection of projects implemented with the involvement of the Fund;

- Roles of the Fund in monitoring project implementation.

Also, meetings were organized with sectoral ministries and departments, in particular with the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services,

JSC "Uzbekiston Temir Yullali" and "Uzavtoyul".

Based on the results of the meetings, the IMF mission prepared a preliminary report “Uzbekistan. Assessment of public investment management ”reflecting the weaknesses of the existing public investment management system in the republic and recommendations for improving the work of this system, taking into account the best experience of leading foreign countries.

Source: Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan