Anti-corruption Strategy

  What is an Anti-Corruption Strategy? The Anti-Corruption Strategy is a document that facilitates ensuring the teamwork of all state bodies to combat corruption in Ukraine. The development and coordination of the implementation of the Anti-Corruption Strategy is the responsibility of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), assigned to it at the legislative level. In order to ensure the high quality of the document, the NACP involved experts, civil society activists, international partners, and all interested entities in developing the Strategy through online discussions held in early July 2020. After public consultations, the draft Strategy was formally coordinated with executive authorities. On June 20, 2022, the Parliament of Ukraine (Verkhovna Rada) adopted the Anti-corruption Strategy that be a guiding document for Ukraine till 2025. The NACP is currently developing the Action Plan for the implementation of the Strategy. It will include clear key performance indicators for each government body. Thanks to the online platform created by NACP, every person will be able to clearly see how every government body is contributing to tackling corruption. Every year, the NACP will assess the implementation of the Anti-Corruption Strategy, preparing a National Report on Implementation of the Anti-Corruption Policy. Also, through this, the Action Plan for the implementation of the Strategy may be amended annually in order to sustain its relevance.   What are the main principles of the new Anti-Corruption Strategy? The Strategy is based on 5 key principles:

• Optimization of functions of the state and local government. In particular, it is envisaged to eliminate excessive powers of the state bodies as well as the duplication of their functions.
• Reduction of the “human factor” and increase in transparency and efficiency of the state’s relations with people and organizations. This will be achieved through the introduction of rules of general administrative procedure and digitalization of most processes and services;
• Creation of convenient and legal alternatives to corrupt practices;
• Ensuring effective state control over the observance by public servants of the rules of ethical conduct and requirements of anti-corruption legislation;
• Ensuring the inevitability of liability for corruption and corruption-related offenses.

  Why is this important? The effective prevention and combating of corruption are impossible without the coordinated efforts of all the state bodies. Without an Anti-Corruption Strategy the state bodies act chaotically: their anti-corruption measures may be ineffective, as they are implemented in only one small area. The Anti-Corruption Strategy unites the state bodies into a single team and helps them interact to achieve better results. Coordination as a necessary condition for an effective fight against corruption is indicated by the UN Convention against Corruption, signed by Ukraine. The development of the Anti-Corruption Strategy is the most common tool for ensuring such coordination. Thus, Anti-Corruption Strategies exist in a number of states on different continents and levels of affluence, Great Britain, Singapore, Vietnam, Jordan, Romania, Egypt, Armenia etc. Therefore, we call on central and local authorities to implement the Anti-Corruption Strategy after its adoption.   What areas does the Strategy cover? The Anti-Corruption Strategy covers the functioning of the general anti-corruption system, identifies priorities for the prevention of corruption in specific sectors of public administration and pays great attention to the liability for corruption. The priority sectors of public administration identified by the Strategy are as follows:

• litigation;
• state regulation of the economy;
• ensuring economic competition;
• public sector of the economy;
• customs and tax authorities;
• defense sector;
• health care;
• funding of political parties;
• private sector.