Employees of state bodies in Uzbekistan would be tested for their resilience to corruption under a draft regulation whose discussion concluded today, part of efforts to prevent corruption-related offences.

The rules would apply to chiefs and employees of state bodies, local state authorities, state institutions, state targeted funds and enterprises with state participation.

Testing would be run by the Executive Personnel Assessment Center under the Agency for Management Efficiency under the President, using the AssessPro electronic platform. The test identifies behavioural indicators pointing to corruption-related risks.

Employees would be assessed every three years, when newly hired, and when appointed to positions with High or Medium corruption risk. They could take the test in Uzbek, Karakalpak or Russian at provincial branches of the agency or in the center’s specially equipped rooms. Failing to answer all questions in the allotted time would mean no result is produced.

Phones, tablets, books and cheat sheets are banned, as are talking to other employees and leaving the room before the test ends. Violations would void the result, and the employee would be deemed not to have passed.

Results would be scored on a 600-point scale. Scores of 447 to 600 fall into category 1 (High resilience), 405 to 446 into category 2 (Medium), 364 to 404 into category 3 (Below) and 120 to 363 into category 4 (Low).

Employees in categories 1 and 2 would be recommended for positions with corruption risk at or below High and Medium respectively. Those in category 3 would be recommended for Medium or lower risk positions with stronger oversight mechanisms. Those in category 4 would be recommended only for Low risk positions.

A presidential decree on measures to further improve management efficiency in the civil service set out the introduction of the assessment system.