Among the young people surveyed, 39% of respondents do not consider bribery to be a corruption offence. This was stated by the director of the Anti-Corruption Agency Akmal Burkhanov, who on August 4 at the plenary session of the Senate delivered the National report on combating corruption in Uzbekistan. A total of 16189 respondents took part in the survey.

Senator Mahmud Parpiev said that the announced figure indicates a lot of work that needs to be done in this area together with the public.

Akmal Burkhanov said that as a result of the taken measures, Uzbekistan's positions in international anti-corruption ratings have improved.

In Transparency International's 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index, Uzbekistan ranked 140th on 28 points. Over the year, the country has climbed 6 positions, improving the score by 2 points - in 2020 it was 146th. In 2019, the country ranked 153rd, in 2018 - 158th, in 2017 - 157th, and in 2016 - 156th.

He also reported of improvements in the World Justice Project's Rule of Law Index, the Open Data Inventory (ODIN), the Trace Bribery Risk Matrix, and the World Bank's WGI.

“It should be noted that Uzbekistan is one of the few countries that has steadily improved in most of these ratings in recent years,” said Akmal Burkhanov.

However, he added that despite the reforms, the problem of corruption was still relevant. According to a survey conducted among the population, 36% of respondents believe that corruption, bribery and greed exist everywhere, and 37% noted that there are crimes related to corruption in some areas.

In mid-June, Akmal Burkhanov reported that the banking system цфs the most corrupt after the education sector. For two years, due to the crimes of 676 bank employees, 354.2 billion soums were stolen. These figures overshadow the reforms and undermine the confidence of the public, he said at the time.