The role of recruitment in public service reform in Uzbekistan

Аннотация

This article is devoted to the study of the process of reforming public service in Uzbekistan, the place of selection of personnel in this area, the analysis of its achievements and shortcomings. The focus will be on the urgent problems of the formation of a modern model of public service in the country. Keywords: public service, public servant, public official, staff, qualifications, training, retraining. In recent years, Uzbekistan has been carrying out large-scale transformations aimed at improving the efficiency of public service in the country. Measures are being taken to abandon the practice of combining state regulatory and economic functions by economic management bodies, and to create a modern system of remuneration and social security for employees of state bodies and organizations. Training of highly qualified personnel is one of the priority tasks of any state. The proper organization of public service and its implementation plays an important role in the transition of a country from a strong state to a strong civilian society. In Uzbekistan, public policy is based on public servants, the proper organization and formation of the civil service institution is one of the urgent tasks facing the state. To date, there has not been a single law in the field of state or civil service. Despite the fact that during the years of independence the laws “On the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan” (1993), “On Courts” (1993), “On the Prosecutor's Office” (1992), “On the Notary Office” (1996) were adopted .), “On the State Customs Service” (1997), “On the State Tax Service” (1997), “On the Rescue Service and the Status of Rescuer” (2008), “On the General Military Duty and Military Service” (2002 g.), “On Internal Affairs Bodies” (2016), “On Local Government Power” (1992), however, none of the named regulatory legal acts have resolved a number of urgent issues, such as: • definition of categories of public servants; • the mandatory holding of the competition upon admission to the public service; • the procedure for conducting qualification exams when moving up the career ladder; • material, organizational, legal and labor guarantees of civil servants, etc. 140 Scientific research results in pandemic conditions (COVID-19) Often, cadres for a responsible public office were selected by the method of nepotism or parochialism, and the priority was the factor of service not to the state, but, at best, to the department and superiors. Today, the main strategic task of public administration is the formation of an optimal highly professional and stable personnel potential. Unfortunately, the implementation of this task is not always consistent and of high quality. Many workers need serious retraining and advanced training, and the services of a considerable number of “specialists” should be abandoned. Hence the “brain drain”, the outflow of experienced, qualified personnel, the low prestige of the profession of civil servant, the not always healthy motivation and poor orientation of officials to highly effective service to the Fatherland, the low level of their professional qualification mobility, the vacancy system, and the absence of special state programs to attract to the state service of talented specialists. The training of qualified professional civil servants is becoming an urgent requirement of the time. Western countries were the first to embark on the scientific organization of labor of civil servants, which causes the interest of specialists in the experience of these countries. The experience of most countries shows that when determining the legal status of a civil servant, it is necessary to take into account the fact that a civil servant, being a citizen of the corresponding country, must have those constitutional rights and freedoms that other citizens have. Therefore, one of the most important tasks of public service reform is to ensure the combination of the legal status of an official as a citizen and as a public servant. At the same time, maintaining a balance of interests of the state and its employees is one of the conditions affecting the effective implementation of public service. The key problem of the current state of public service is the inconsistency of management practices, the style of work of the civil service, as well as the principles of its formation, to the tasks of transforming society and the economy, and achieving sustainable development in Uzbekistan. The following items can be identified as elements of this problem: • there is no systematic legislative regulation of the civil service with the definition of the rights, duties and social guarantees of civil servants; • the concept and system of training for civil service needs to be improved; • a system of objective assessment of the performance of a civil servant and a differentiated system of remuneration are not implemented depending on the results achieved; • existing HR technologies do not allow the full impleme