Corruption and land fraud in Tajikistan

The authorities of the Khatlon and Sughd regions reported numerous violations of legislation related to the buying and selling of land plots.

The Chairman of the State Committee for Land Management of Khatlon Region Dilovar Pirzoda informed journalists at a press conference that last year, the staff of this agency conducted inspections of 3,321 hectares of land in Khatlon Region, resulting in the identification of 5,352 violations related to land transactions.

Dilovar Pirzoda stated that after identifying such a number of violations, more than 4,245 protocols and decisions on imposing fines on offenders were drawn up.

According to him, the total amount of imposed fines exceeds 2 million 310 thousand somoni, and currently, 1 million 900 thousand somoni of this amount has been collected.

The Chairman of the Bobojon Gafurov District Nusratullo Salimzoda complained at a press conference on February 2 about the existence of problems and violations in this area. He stated that “there is not a single inch of land left in the district; everything has been bought and privatized.”

Salimzoda noted that there are many abandoned private land plots in the district. Residents have privatized these lands but do not actually use them. According to him, the government has decided to confiscate these land plots from the owners and transfer them to state ownership.

Officials in cities and districts of Tajikistan complain about violations of the land sale law, while every year dozens of officials are detained by law enforcement agencies on charges of illegal buying and selling of land plots.

Observers familiar with the situation assert that the representatives of the authorities and high-ranking officials themselves sell land, prepare documents, accept bribes, or, using their family and other connections, allocate land to certain individuals. Meanwhile, needy residents appeal to the authorities dozens of times and wait for years to receive a plot of land for building a house, but are unable to obtain it.

Experts claim that corruption and bribery are so widespread in all sectors of the country that preventing corruption is practically impossible. They argue that this official obtained their position in such a manner, meaning they bought the position by paying a substantial sum, and they must somehow recoup their money. Thus, corruption reaches the highest levels of the country’s leadership, indicating the complete intractability of corruption in our country.