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A school director in Kumqo’rg’on district, Surkhandarya region, has been sentenced to two years in prison after a court found him guilty of demanding and receiving 4.5 million soums in bribes from a job applicant in exchange for hiring her as a mathematics teacher and allocating her classroom hours.
The director, identified in court documents reviewed by Daryo as P.Kh., was appointed to lead the school in June 2025 after years of work in the education sector. His official duties included hiring and dismissing staff, assigning teaching hours and overseeing the school’s day-to-day operations.
How the Scheme Unfolded
In June 2026, P.Kh. posted a vacancy for a mathematics teacher through the district’s poverty-reduction and employment office. A citizen identified as J.Gh. called him to express interest. After an initial phone conversation, the two met in the district centre, where the director told her there were 15 available teaching hours in mathematics but that costs related to obtaining a labour-exchange referral and completing the tarification process would need to be covered.
On 21 July, the director called J.Gh. again and arranged a second meeting, at which she handed over copies of her passport, a personal biography, proof of residence and health certificates. She also disclosed that she was a third-year correspondence student at university. According to her testimony, the director then asked how much money she had on her. When she asked why, he told her that ten hours of teaching would cost 300 dollars — equivalent to 3.6 million soums — but said she could calculate it at 3 million. She told him she had 500,000 to 600,000 soums available. He took 500,000 soums along with her documents and told her to bring the remaining 4 million soums as quickly as possible. They agreed to meet that same evening in one of the district centre’s mahallas to complete the payment.
Sting Operation and Conviction
Instead of returning with the money alone, J.Gh. filed a complaint with the district office of the Department for Combating Economic Crimes. Prosecutors and State Security Service officers organised an undercover operation. P.Kh. arrived at the agreed location in his white Nexia-1 car. J.Gh. got in and handed him 4 million soums wrapped in a black plastic bag. The director counted the notes and placed them beside the handbrake. He was detained by operation participants as he stepped out of the vehicle.
The Kumqo’rg’on District Court for Criminal Cases convicted P.Kh. under Part 1 of Article 210 of the Criminal Code — the provision covering bribery. The court sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment and stripped him of the right to hold positions of official or financial responsibility in state-affiliated organisations for a further two years.
The case is one of several recent bribery convictions involving school administrators in Uzbekistan. A director in Jalaquduq district was earlier sentenced — though conditionally — for taking 4.5 million soums to move a security guard to a full-time rate, while a separate case in Surkhandarya involved a director who demanded two thousand dollars to hire a cleaner.