Uzbekistan: Report on Fiscal Transparency

UNCLAS TASHKENT 000443 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPT FOR SCA/CEN, EEB/IFD/OMA FOR JULIA JACOBY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAID ECON PREL UZ SUBJECT: Uzbekistan: Report on Fiscal Transparency REF: STATE 28885 ¶1. (SBU) The following is Post's response to reftel. ¶A. Is the central government expected to receive or is it already receiving U.S. foreign assistance funded using FY 09 funds? Yes. Multiple programs funded by U.S. agencies including USAID and State provide technical assistance, but not direct financial support, to Uzbekistan. ¶B. Is the host country's budget publicly available? While the Government of Uzbekistan (GOU) has not released official figures on its state budget since 2006, it does provide such figures to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). According to an agreement with the GOU, the IMF publishes this data no earlier than 12-18 months after the reviewed year has ended. We have received information on Uzbekistan's budget from the International Monetary Fund's publications and other sources. ¶C. Are incomes and expenditures included in the publicly available budget? The IMF and other sources have provided some information on incomes and expenditures derived from data it has received from the Government of Uzbekistan. Uzbek presidential resolutions at the end of each year lay out budget targets for the upcoming year, but the the GOU does not publish actual implementation results of its budget. It is unclear to what extent the publicly available budget accurately reflects actual government incomes and expenditures. NORLAND