The Role and Significance of The Accounts Chamber of The Republic of Uzbekistan in Implementing State Financial Control

Аннотация

The Accounts Chamber of the Republic of Uzbekistan (ACRU) is the country’s supreme audit institution and a keystone of the national architecture of public-sector accountability. Since the 2013 adoption of the Law “On the Accounts Chamber,” successive reforms—most recently the creation of the “State Audit” e-platform and the extension of external audit to the consolidated budget—have expanded the Chamber’s mandate and methodological arsenal. This article analyses the ACRU’s evolving legal foundations, organisational model, audit methodology, and practical results through the prism of the IMRAD framework. Drawing on legislative acts, official reports, and comparative INTOSAI guidance, it demonstrates that the Chamber has moved from ex-post verification of budget execution to a risk-based, results-oriented system encompassing financial, compliance, and performance audits. Empirical findings based on 2018-2023 data show a pronounced increase in the scope of audited public expenditure, a measurable rise in detected irregularities, and a notable improvement in the recovery of misallocated funds. The discussion highlights persisting challenges—limited access to extra-budgetary funds, fragmented internal audit in line ministries, and the need for further digital integration—while underscoring the Chamber’s role in fostering fiscal transparency and public trust. Keywords: Accounts Chamber; supreme audit institution; state financial control; public finance; Uzbekistan; performance audit; fiscal transparency. to the Oliy Majlis and society that public resources are Introduction: Against the backdrop of Uzbekistan’s mobilised and applied in line with the nation’s transition from a centrally planned system to an open, development priorities. market-oriented economy, the integrity of public- finance management has emerged as a strategic Over the past decade the Chamber has pursued an precondition for sustainable growth, social equity, and ambitious modernisation agenda that mirrors, and in investor confidence. Within this architecture, external several dimensions anticipates, global INTOSAI state audit serves as the definitive mechanism that standards. Legislative reforms have expanded its remit translates constitutional principles of accountability from the republican budget to the entire consolidated into measurable fiscal discipline. The Accounts public sector, encompassing off-budget, debt-financed, Chamber of the Republic of Uzbekistan (ACRU) and externally funded programmes whose aggregate occupies this pivotal position. Constituted in its modern weight in the expenditure mix has grown markedly form by the 2013 Law “On the Accounts Chamber” and since the launch of the “Uzbekistan-2030” strategy. reinforced by successive amendments, the ACRU was Organisationally, the Chamber has institutionalised mandated not merely to verify budget execution ex performance and compliance audits alongside post, but to provide independent, risk-based assurance traditional financial checks, adopted a risk-oriented International Journal of Management and Economics Fundamental 45 https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ijmef International Journal of Management and Economics Fundamental (ISSN: 2771-2257) planning matrix, and introduced a competency-based execution to a diversified mix of financial, compliance, professional development system aligned with ISSAI and performance audits. The adoption of risk-based 150. Technologically, it has rolled out the “State Audit” planning enabled a sharper focus on high-impact e-platform, integrating audit workflows with the sectors such as health, education, and infrastructure. Treasury’s information systems and enabling near real- The “State Audit” e-platform, operational since mid- time publication of findings—an innovation that 2023, now serves as the single entry point for positions Uzbekistan among the frontrunners in digital registering all public-sector control activities, thereby public-sector auditing in Central Asia. reducing duplication and facilitating real-time data analytics [5]. These reforms coincide with a broader governmental drive to curb corruption, enhance fiscal transparency, Data extracted from the Chamber’s 2023 report show and attract foreign investment through credible that audited expenditure volumes rose from UZS 42 governance safeguards. Yet questions remain trillion in 2018 to UZS 145 trillion in 2023, an average regarding the Chamber’s access to extra-budgetary annual growth rate of 27 percent [3]. Over the same entities, the consistency of internal-audit quality across period, the value of detected financial violations line ministries, and the practical enforcement of audit increased by a factor of 4.6, reaching UZS 2.8 trillion in recommendations. This study therefore examines the 2023. Importantly, recoveries and restitutions evolving role and significance of the Accounts Chamber recorded in the treasury system climbed from UZS 320 in Uzbekistan’s state-financial-contr