Reforming the System of Public Services in Uzbekistan – Implementation of Single Window Principles

“Reforming the system of rendering public services: implementation of the “single window” principle in the interaction of the population with state bodies”

The first step towards a new system of Public services is becoming an integral part of every person’s life. For example, every day citizens are faced with the need to obtain a child’s birth certificate, place him in a kindergarten and then in school, receive different information, different licenses for starting a business and developing it.

Today, all these processes can be carried out in one place – at the Public Services Center.

It all started on December 12, 2017 at the initiative of the head of Uzbekistan, when a cardinal step was taken to reform the national system of public services. Immediately, a new state structure was created, which was entrusted with the high tasks of preventing bureaucracy, as well as justifying the trust and hopes of citizens in government agencies.

The result of expressed trust

For more than 3 years, Public Service Centers have become the only place where people can get the most essential public services based on the principles of speed, convenience and quality.
Today, there are 205 Public Service Centers in every district or city of the country.

The practice of studying the opinion of the population is constantly improving, and the number of services provided taking into account their wishes is growing more and more.

For example, in the period until 2018, only 37 types of public services were provided to businesses through the Public Service Centers, today the number of these services has reached 154.

In 2017, entrepreneurs were provided with more than 120 thousand public services, currently more than 26.3 million applications for public services from individuals and legal entities have been received. This is an increase of 219 times.

To date, more than 110 draft regulatory legal acts in the field of public services have been developed, more than 70 services have been fully revised and about 80 administrative regulations have been adopted. This, in turn, reduced the number of documents submitted by citizens from 167 to 79, and the time required for service has more than halved – from only 465 to 245 days.

In order to create more favorable conditions for the use of public services by the population and business, to reduce bureaucratic barriers in this regard, the relevant Presidential Decree abolished the requirement for 18 types of certificates and documents, and the registration of relevant acts in the field of civil registration, medical examination of married individuals and the issuance of biometric passports abroad will be carried out on an extraterritorial basis.
This will save citizens the extra money they spend on government services and prevent hassle.

For the convenience of service recipients, the working days of the Centers have been extended on weekdays and they are open until 3 p.m. on Saturdays.

The labor expended will not go unnoticed

For the first time in the provision of public services, the principle of extraterritorial service was introduced throughout the country and the mechanism for opening bank accounts simultaneously with the registration of business entities, and the obligation to use seals and stamps was abolished.

As a result, the Republic of Uzbekistan took 8th place out of 190 countries in the “Starting a business” indicator of the World Bank’s “Doing Business 2020” rating, for which the Public Services Agency is responsible. For the first time in the history of independent Uzbekistan, he entered the top 10.

In 2021, the Public Services Agency received a certificate of the international standard ISO 37001: 2016 in the anti-corruption management system.

This certificate is issued to the Agency for the implementation and development of public services and the provision of public services to individuals and legal entities, including:

– control over the activities of public service centers;
– control over the activities of state bodies for the provision of public services;
– receiving and using charitable donations and sponsorship funds from international financial institutions and other foreign organizations, contributions from individuals and legal entities, as well as receiving and issuing grants;
– covers the organization of construction of public services centers to the population at the expense of the investor.

Public services in every home

The Public Services Agency pays special attention to creating opportunities for every citizen, regardless of the place of residence, to enjoy quality public services.

In particular, the Agency is one of the first state organizations that has spread the concept of “mobile” that is, outreach public services among the population.

On weekends, PSCs staff provides the necessary documentation through the visiting people living in remote and mountainous areas that are difficult to access by vehicles equipped with special equipment. By the day, about 645,000 mobile services have been provided across the country using acceptable, convenient and transparent methods.
Branches of the Public Services Centers have been established in remote areas located (100-300 km) far from the center of the district and based on the needs of the population. Today, their number has exceeded 100, and the number of services provided has exceeded 80,000.

“Documents are moving” in the field of civil registration

It is well known that one of the main tasks of PSCs is to create a system that minimizes the interaction of citizens with government officials. The main criterion for this is the digitization of archival documents of government agencies and the creation of electronic information systems needed in the provision of public services.
Settling the example for other agencies, the PSA began digitization with the Civil Registry Offices. Special digitization equipment was used for this purpose.

As a result, more than 90 percent of the nearly 60 million archival data available today by the Civil Registry Offices have been digitized.
At the same time, records of acts registered in the Arabic and Old Latin alphabets and recognized as invalid are entered into the information system “Unified Electronic Archive of the Civil Registry Office” with the involvement of relevant specialists.

In addition, more than 10 million people under the age of 16 and without biometric passports were provided with the function of identifying family members of the applicant as a result of assigning personal identification numbers to the “Unified Electronic Archive of the Civil Registry Office”.

Another convenience is the provision of composite (integrated) services in the Civil Registry Offices to register the birth of a child. That is, the services of registration of birth, registration of the child in the polyclinic, registration at the place of residence, the appointment of a one-time pension and queuing at the state preschool educational institution are carried out simultaneously.

With the introduction of composite public services, more than 15 documents were reduced and access to 4 offices was restricted. Despite the fact that this service has not been launched for a long time, by today, more than 174 766 citizens have benefited from this convenience.

The quality of service is constantly monitored

A database of competent authorities for the provision of public services has been created under constant control of the quality of services, a platform for the provision of public services has been launched. This made it possible to track the status of compliance with the order and timing of the provision of each public service.

It is noteworthy that in accordance with the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Code on Administrative Responsibility establishes responsibility for actions expressed in violation of legislation in the provision of public services.

The Director of the Public Services Agency and his deputy, as well as the heads of territorial departments and their deputies are authorized to apply direct administrative sanctions against the guilty officials.

Innovations in the sphere of public Service

In order to make it easier to receive public services remotely, the Agency’s specialists have made it possible to obtain an electronic digital signature online.

In the field of entrepreneurship, some processes have been simplified.
For example, it is now possible to open a bank account in 30 commercial banks at the same time as registering a business. Along with the state registration of business entities that are legal entities, it will be possible to register employees in the funded pension system, as well as obtain an electronic digital signature.

One of the important innovations in the system is the introduction of a mechanism for receiving cash through the electronic payment system pay.davxizmat.uz in order to eliminate problems with payment for public services.

Information on the amount paid at each stage of the provision of public services is sent in the form of SMS-messages to the telephone numbers of the authors of the application.

Starting from November this year, some district (city) Public Services Centers have launched a trial of “surdo-online” tablets. Surdo-online tablets are connected to the Internet and provide full online communication with people with hearing and speech impairments.

The “Situation Center” was launched, which allows real-time (online) monitoring of all public service centers throughout the country.

The License Information System was developed and launched using grant funds within the framework of the joint project of the Public Services Agency and the United Nations Development Program “Improving the provision of public services and increasing the level of local self-government in rural areas of Uzbekistan”, funded by the European Union. The system has simplified the procedure for obtaining licenses and permits required to conduct business.

“Karshi Experience”

Based on the “Karshi Experience”, efforts are being made to develop a complete understanding of the skills of using e-government services in makhallas (communities), as well as among young people.

At the discretion of the citizens who visit the centers are explained how to use e-services using computers connected to the Internet in Public Service Centers. On the formation and development of knowledge and skills in the use of e-government services, master classes on the principle of “PSCs-Mahalla-Citizen” were organized for community leaders and officials of educational institutions.

About social assistance

It should be noted that the Public Services Agency has also implemented important social projects.

About 1 million people applied for the legalization of their homes, that is, the registration of cadastral documents. 605,000 of them received positive results. In addition, during the operation of the mobile service, 32.5 thousand services were provided to citizens who did not have birth certificates and marriage registration documents.

Of course, there are problems in this area that need to be addressed. The Public Services Agency will continue to work to simplify procedures and improve the quality of public services.

22 April 2021