The Anti-Corruption Agency revealed the theft of almost 1 billion soums, US$80 thousand within the framework of the “One Million Coders” program in Uzbekistan.
The Anti-Corruption Agency studied the expenditures of budget funds when purchasing computers and other funds by the state institution “Ukuv Talim-Taminot” under the Ministry of Preschool and School Education as part of this program. In addition, the agency checked the compliance of the equipment with the technical specifications.
Department employees conducted an on-site inspection in Fergana, Namangan, Tashkent, Syrdarya and Jizzakh provinces and found that the technical characteristics of the computers did not fully comply with the requirements specified in the contract.
Documents on the case were submitted to the Department for Combating Economic Crimes at the Prosecutor General's Office. The Tashkent branch of the department, as part of a pre-investigation investigation, found that the Smart Sales Leader, under a contract entered into with Ukuv Talim-Taminot, was required to supply additional computers worth 919.36 million soums, but failed to do so.
According to the department, these funds were stolen through misappropriation.
A criminal case has been launched against officials of Ukuv Talim-Taminot and Smart Sales Leader under Theft by misappropriation or embezzlement on an especially large scale charge and Abuse of power or official powers causing especially large damage charge of the Criminal Code, with preliminary investigation underway.
According to the Unified State Register of Enterprises and Organizations, Smart Sales Leader was registered on February 18, 2021. The owner and director is Alizhon Nurullaev.
On December 29, 2021, Ukuv Talim-Taminot and Smart Sales Leader entered into an agreement worth of 25.55 billion soums for the supply of 3,380 personal computers worth of 7.56 million soums each.
The computers were intended for students of the “One Million Coders” program in Karakalpakstan, as well as Bukhara, Kashkadarya, Navoi, Samarkand, Surkhandarya and Khorezm provinces.
The services of Smart Sales Leader were also previously used by the Sanitary-Epidemiological Welfare and Public Health Service, which purchased 128 computers for 1 billion soums, as well as 250 units of videoconferencing equipment for 714 million soums.
The One Million Uzbek Coders project to train a million domestic coders in cooperation with the UAE was launched in Uzbekistan in November 2019.
