“If we take money by involving citizens in processes they do not want, this is not a service” — MP
Deputy Ilhom Abdullayev emphasized that the list of public services must be reviewed. In his opinion, there is a clear definition of service in the legislation, and involving a citizen in a process they do not want and charging money for it is not a service. Filling the budget at the expense of fines and citizen contributions is wrong.
“If we involve citizens in processes they do not want and take money, this is not a service” — MP
Speaking at the forum “Digital Government: Unified Approach, Modern Management, and New Opportunities for Citizens” held within the framework of ICT Week Uzbekistan, Ilhom Abdullayev, Chairman of the Committee on Innovative Development and Information Technologies of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis, emphasized the need to review the list of public services. According to him, there is a clear definition of a service in the legislation, and involving citizens in processes they do not want and ultimately extracting money from them is not considered a service.
Ilhom Abdullayev also touched upon aspects he considers important for improving quality and development in the field of digitizing public services. In particular, he noted that today there are more than 1,000 public services in digital form, but the question of how balanced they are and whether these services are indeed considered services remains open.
“There is a concept of service in the Civil Code: a service is work performed at the request of a specific applicant. If you come and say: ‘I want you to do this work for me,’ that is a service. But if we involve citizens through some regulatory document or law in processes they do not want, take money from them at the end, and say, ‘Look, what a wonderful service we have provided you,’ this is not a service,” he said.
In this regard, Abdullayev proposed to distinguish between a public utility (servis) and a service (xizmat).
“There are public utilities that we must provide to our citizens for free or solely on the basis of covering the costs associated with providing them. As for services, for example, someone needs a plot of land, someone wants to get something for the construction of their company — not everyone needs this, specifically that person needs it. They submit an application, this is where a service arises, and a full list should be introduced here,” he explained.
According to Abdullayev, when ministries and departments are established, their tasks and functions are clearly defined. And budget funds are allocated for all of this.
“When the Legislative Chamber approves the budget, it does not just allocate money to government institutions,” Abdullayev noted. “The money is given to them so that they can develop a public utility model that serves their citizens. This money has already been allocated to these government bodies. Today, we — the specialists, at the technological level, must ensure that these utilities work for free for our citizens.”
According to Abdullayev, the list of public services needs to be reviewed. The Ministry of Digital Technologies and the Ministry of Justice should leave in this list only those utilities that truly reach the level of a public service.
“Digitization should not be carried out where it is convenient, where it is easy to implement, or where costs are covered through fines or citizen contributions. It is very easy to digitize roads, install radars, collect fines, and fill the budget, but this is wrong. Digitization must serve the citizens,” Ilhom Abdullayev concluded.