The situation surrounding Uzbekneftegaz, the largest gas-producing state company in Uzbekistan, has once again come to the forefront of public attention. A Kun.uz source reports that former chairman Bakhodir Siddikov was detained as a precautionary measure on suspicion of corruption, but this information has not yet been officially confirmed.
At the same time, there are rumors that the director of the State Assets Management Agency, Akmalkhon Ortikov, who is considered the main executor of the privatization process, was also investigated and even imprisoned. According to the source, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev addressed these issues at a video conference on January 27.
The head of state noted that a large audit is currently underway at both Uzbekneftegaz and Davaktiv, and embezzlement of billions of soums has been identified in both agencies.
As one of the most sensational examples, officials of the State Assets Management Agency put up a land plot with a market value of at least 250 billion soums at a closed auction and sold it for 120 billion soums. It was also noted that Artikov was fired after this incident.
Here the president's question sounded very harsh: if corruption has been "rooted" in these agencies for years, where are the security officials looking? It's not just about criticism, but about raising responsibility to a higher level. The President instructed the Chairman of the State Security Service to consider the responsibility of employees responsible for "Uzbekneftegaz" and the State Assets Management, to carefully investigate each case of the sale of state property, to identify corruption schemes and ensure the inevitability of punishment.
As for Bakhodir Siddikov, he had been heading Uzbekneftegaz since March 2023 and was dismissed in mid-December 2025. Alisher Sultanov, who at that time was the president's representative on energy security, also left his post, and then it was more openly said that problems in the system had increased.
As for Ortikov, there is a view among the public that he is "one of the most closed officials": it is noted that he headed the agency since December 2020, but open questions about many controversial privatization agreements remained unanswered. Details of where and when the land plot was sold have not yet been disclosed.
In short, the main point on the agenda is one: the "big audit" is not just a headline, it should yield results. Now the most important question is how transparent the investigations will be, whether the last loop of schemes will be developed, and whether the inevitability of punishment will be ensured. Time will tell.
Read “Zamin” on Telegram!
