Measuring corruption in the construction sector in Uzbekistan: exploring links and correlations between national assessment tools and statistical data

Аннотация

This article focuses on analyzing the relationship between national mechanisms for assessing the effectiveness of anti-corruption efforts and judicial-legal statistics on corruption-related offenses in the construction sector of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Amid the active implementation of such instruments as performance rating systems, the electronic register of corruption-prone relations, and the openness index, there arises a need to verify their effectiveness through comparison with current law enforcement data. The aim of the study is to identify the existence and nature of correlations between formalized indicators of anti-corruption activity and statistical indicators reflecting the number of criminal cases related to corruption in the construction sector, as recorded in judicial-legal statistics. The empirical basis of the study includes data from the Anti-Corruption Agency, the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as provisions of national legislation and international methodological sources. Methodologically, the work relies on legal, comparative-analytical, and descriptive statistical methods with elements of content analysis. The results of the analysis do not confirm the existence of a stable direct correlation between the increase in formalized assessment indicators and a decrease in the level of corruption in the construction sector. In some cases, a simultaneous improvement in formal indicators and an increase in the number of detected criminal cases, convicted individuals, and the total amount of damage is observed. This dynamic may reflect both the intensification of law enforcement and oversight activities, and the limitations of existing approaches to measuring anti-corruption effectiveness. It highlights the need for a comprehensive reassessment of the applied evaluation tools, taking into account their ability to adequately reflect real changes in the level of corruption, rather than solely institutional efforts to contain it. The study concludes that existing assessment models should be revised in favor of integrated solutions combining quantitative and qualitative indicators, with an emphasis on behavioral, institutional, and law enforcement aspects.