Constitution: citizens exercise public control over the formation of the State budget

Until recent years in Uzbekistan, there was no question of the openness of the state budget and the establishment of public control over it. As a result of the reforms carried out in recent years, a number of practical works aimed at ensuring the openness of the budget were carried out, and important documents were adopted in this regard. Citizens are not only controlling the state budget, but also participating in the spending of funds. Most people do not even have a general idea of how state or local budgets are formed. These funds, which are called "state money", are actually money collected from the taxes paid by the people themselves. Naturally, people have the right to control how and where their money is spent. This article guarantees exactly this right. It is not a secret to anyone that some appeals to solve problems in the neighborhood are answered by the relevant officials saying "it is included in the plan, we will do it if there is funding." Citizens who received these answers were waiting for a solution to the problems in the neighborhood. In order to drastically prevent such situations, a separate new article related to the budget is being included in the newly revised Constitution. An article on the state budget and its transparency is included in the updated Constitution, and this article will help people control how the budget is formed and spent. Article 148. The State budget of the Republic of Uzbekistan consists of the republican budget, the budget of the Republic of Karakalpakstan and local budgets. Procedures for the formation and execution of the State budget of the Republic of Uzbekistan are carried out on the basis of the principles of openness and transparency. Citizens and civil society institutions exercise public control over the formation and execution of the State budget of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The procedures and forms of participation of citizens and civil society institutions in the budget process are determined by law. First of all, it is determined that the procedures for the formation and execution of the state budget will be implemented based on the principles of openness and transparency. In particular, the "Open Budget" portal, which provides for the posting of information on the State budget, was launched. Norms on public control over the formation and execution of the state budget are also introduced. It is worth noting that the procedure for citizens' participation in the budget process has also appeared. That is, the initiative budget is the practice of making decisions with their direct participation and monitoring the implementation of the adopted decisions on spending a certain part of the budget funds, taking into account the initiatives of the population. Through this practice, it was possible to enter the problems that the population is suffering from, including problems in the neighborhood (roads, playgrounds, etc.) into the budget and solve them quickly. Starting from 2019, a mechanism was introduced to allocate at least 10% of the additional sources of the district and city budgets for citizens' participation in activities formed on the basis of public opinion. However, there was a need to include such a separate article in the Constitution in order for the work in this regard to proceed systematically. The norms defined in the new Constitution as a logical continuation of the above-mentioned works are the formation of the state budget, the determination of its income and expenditure parts, the involvement of citizens and civil society institutions in ensuring its implementation, their wide and active participation in this process, the appropriate organizational and creates legal conditions and guarantees. These amendments to the Constitution provide the appropriate organizational and legal conditions for forming the state budget, determining its revenue and expenditure components, involving citizens and civil society institutions in ensuring its execution, and their wide and active participation in this process, public control, and allows you to create guarantees. The main thing is that through this article, looting of budget funds, inappropriate or inefficient use of funds will be prevented. Ensuring the purposeful use of the state budget, providing medical services to the population, expanding educational opportunities, providing necessary assistance to the population in need of social protection, providing housing, entrepreneurship and, in general, all other aspects of the life of the state and society. serves to ensure efficiency in the fields.