In Uzbekistan, it is planned to obligate customers to publish an announcement on the procurement portal, which is planned to be carried out under a direct contract, as follows from the draft document published for public discussion.
According to the information, by 2030, the authorities plan to increase the share of competitive methods of public procurement to 80% of the total number, as well as ensure savings of 25 trillion soums. It is also planned to double the business activity in the sphere and bring the share of domestic products to 98%.
In particular, from January 1, 2026, the list of goods, works, and services, the procurement of which is carried out under direct contracts, will be canceled — now they will be carried out using competitive methods. It is noted that when developing draft regulatory legal acts permitting procurement under direct contracts, it is necessary to indicate a specific executor, and the projects themselves will be evaluated by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
They will also need to obtain the conclusion of the Competition Committee and undergo anti-corruption expertise. At the same time, before the development of such an act, the customer must publish an announcement on the public procurement portal about the procurement, which is planned to be carried out under a direct contract — it must be publicly available for at least 3 working days.
Further, the placement of an offer in the state procurement electronic store was increased to 60 days, and the minimum period for the delivery of goods — to 5 days. In addition, the authorities introduced local auctions to reduce prices between budget customers and local producers. It is noted that the auction will be considered valid even if only one entrepreneur participated in it.
At the same time, companies that have reached a localization level of 30% or higher will be able to receive advance payments for the supply of goods — the amount of the advance will depend on the level of localization, but cannot exceed the total volume of the supplier’s assets. Now, all draft procurement documents will be published on the public procurement portal for public discussion for at least 2 working days, and the Competition Committee will monitor comments and comments and, in case of violations, submit prescriptions to state bodies.
Also, information on the results of all procurements will be subject to mandatory disclosure on the public procurement portal, except in cases related to state secrets or commercial secrets. Starting March 1, 2026, it was instructed to launch an AI-based module for calculating the average market price of public procurement items — customers will form the average price there before conducting procurement.
In this case, if the difference between the starting price of the item or the contract price and the average market indicator exceeds 10% or is less than 20%, the procurement is assigned a high degree of risk. The contract will become the basis for an unscheduled inspection by state control bodies. It is noted that procurement under direct contracts must be carried out without exceeding the average market price, except for cases stipulated by law.
Earlier, it was reported that in Surkhandarya, the Anti-Corruption Agency identified a violation in state procurement worth almost 40 billion soums. The specialists cancelled the competition and transferred the case to law enforcement agencies.
