The Senate of the Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan at its 15th plenary session on May 19 adopted a resolution to send a parliamentary inquiry to the Minister of Construction and Housing and Utilities, Sherzod Khidoyatov. The harsh response was prompted by large-scale financial embezzlement in the design of facilities, a critical situation with deaths at construction sites, neglect of updating building codes, and ineffective handling of public complaints. The ministry was required to provide substantiated explanations on measures to eradicate corruption, ensure transparency in public procurement, improve work quality, and create safe working conditions.
The bulk of violations in the construction industry are related to financial crimes and misuse of state funds. During 2024–2025, 236 corruption crimes were recorded in the sector, involving 284 individuals. The structure of offenses is dominated by abuse of office (72 cases), official forgery (71 cases), and direct embezzlement of budget funds (46 cases).
Damage to the state from violations in the development of construction projects in 2025 alone amounted to 391.2 billion soums, with 474 criminal cases opened on these facts. A year earlier, this figure reached 419.4 billion soums. Geographically, the largest amounts of stolen funds were recorded in Tashkent (42.9 billion soums), Bukhara region (35.3 billion soums), and Jizzakh region (24.4 billion soums). The situation indicates the ineffectiveness of financial discipline mechanisms and the internal audit system in the ministry.
Serious problems have been identified in the quality control of construction and installation works and reporting. In 2025, 1,601 violations related to construction defects were registered, totaling 29 billion soums (in 2024 — 63 billion soums). At the same time, 506 cases of direct misappropriation of funds through padding in documents were recorded, where supposedly completed works worth 25 billion soums were entered into reports but were not actually carried out. In the previous year, there were 389 such cases of fictitious reports worth 83 billion soums. The current control inspection shows weak performance due to the dominance of the human factor, creating risks for the safety of commissioned buildings.
At the same time, the industry maintains a critical level of injuries and neglect of occupational safety rules. In 2025, 40% of all registered accidents at construction sites resulted in the death of employees. The main cause of mortality was non-compliance with safety requirements when working at height — this factor accounts for 52% of incidents. Another 15% of accidents are caused by the use of technically faulty equipment and a shortage of personal protective equipment, and 7% by staff negligence.
An additional factor in the crisis in the management of the industry is the obsolescence of the regulatory framework and ignoring citizens' appeals. Currently, 19 current urban planning norms and rules have not been revised for more than 20 years. This violates the Cabinet of Ministers' resolution of October 6, 2022, requiring updates every 3–4 years, and the Law "On Technical Regulation," which mandates updating standards every 5 years. At the same time, the ministry shows low performance in working with the public: as of December last year, out of 13,800 complaints received by the Virtual and People's Receptions of the President, only 18% were resolved positively. Superficial consideration of problems led to the accumulation of 1,358 repeated appeals from citizens.
Source: podrobno.uz