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Tackling corruption in Ukraine: experiences shared

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02.12.2014

2 December 2014, Kyiv - Today over 90 representatives of government institutions, national and international experts, representatives of the civil society and activists convened at a roundtable discussion on "Reforming the corruption prevention system in Ukraine".

 
The event was co-organized by the UNDP in Ukraine and the International Renaissance Foundation in partnership with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, experts from the EU, the American Chamber of Commerce, Ukrainian and international practitioners and representatives of the academia. The roundtable was called not only to explore the anticorruption framework established by the new anticorruption legislation of Ukraine, in particular the Law on prevention of corruption and the Law on adopting the National Anticorruption Strategy. It was also designed to jumpstart charting the way forwards in implementing the new regulations.
 
"Regardless of the positive news that adoption of these laws brings we need to understand that these architectures, rules and principles are not in themselves a response to corruption in Ukraine. They are effective and well-considered blueprints, designs, roadmaps and action items. True effect will, obviously, not be in place until the tools are out of their box and used in good faith to build a society and state machinery based on more integrity"- said Ms. Inita Paulovica, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative, in her welcome address.
 
Executive director of the International Renaissance Foundation, Mr. Yevhen Bystrytsky, on the other hand, emphasized that engaging a wider circle of actors is crucial for effective anticorruption work. Investigative journalism, volunteer movements, civil society activism are but a few of the factors that, alongside the performance of government agencies will be able to galvanize work on the anticorruption frontier.
 
Throughout the presentations and discussions at the round table, attention was allocated to review the new corruption prevention architecture (including the National Agency for prevention of corruption), issues of conflict of interest management, assets declaration regime, prevention of corruption in activities of legal entities and other constituent elements of the comprehensive anticorruption machinery. The format of the discussions followed a pattern where national experts and officials presented the architecture elements and international experts invited by the organizers presented their feedback and highlighted experiences from outside Ukraine, as well as precedents that may allow Ukraine to avoid pitfalls on the way of jumpstarting the effective architecture for corruption prevention.

Amongst other issues, Dr. Slagjana Taseva, UNDP-invited expert, the first President of the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption in Macedonia and Head of TI Macedonia, noted that the issue of assets declarations, is one of the pillars for corruption prevention work. "While Ukraine has had legal principles for submitting assets declarations since 1993, the current legislation provides much more detail and context to the issue. It is inevitable that additional questions will rise throughout implementation, but through application of good practices and learning from previous experiences, we can avoid pitfalls and make the declarations an effective tool for prevention of illicit enrichment, conflict of interest and management of financial integrity in the country" – she noted.
 
 
The round table was also used as a platform to highlight the previous anticorruption priorities of the UNDP in Ukraine, such as conducting trainings and creative awareness-raising social innovation events, organizing discussions, designing instruments to equip the civil society with better tools for corruption risk assessment, and testing shadow reporting modalities in the mechanisms that have previously not had such practices – such as the OECD Istanbul Anticorruption Action Plan.
 
Currently UNDP is at the final stages of preparing for the launch of a three-and-a-half-year project on corruption prevention. The "Enhanced Public Sector Transparency and Integrity" initiative, which is to run from mid-2015 until the end of 2018 with the support of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a logical continuation of previous work and, also a partner-initiative for the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption. The new initiative will also cooperate with the Ministry of Justice, the Parliamentary Committee for Organized Crime and Corruption, the Reanimation Package of Reforms anticorruption group, as well as sub-national civic groups and activists.
 
The event comes in anticipation of the International Anti-Corruption Day of 9th December, which this year is held under the slogan of "Break the Corruption Chain", aiming at increasing awareness on anticorruption work and promoting messages of good governance and integrity globally.