Deputy Head of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) Serhii Hupiak discussed with Isabelle Jégouzeau, Director of the French Anti-Corruption Agency (Agence française anticorruption, AFA), the prevention of corruption and the promotion of integrity in the public and private sectors in Ukraine and the French Republic.
He told his French colleagues about the powers and key areas of the National Agency's work, the peculiarities of implementing the Anti-Corruption Strategy and the State Anti-Corruption Program (SAP) for 2023-2025, and the work of the SAP Implementation Monitoring Information System. The Deputy Head of NACP paid special attention to the issues of conducting anti-corruption examinations and analyzing corruption risks in various areas and developing the institution of whistleblowing in Ukraine.
During the meeting, the parties also focused on the implementation of EU Directive 2019/1937 and the audit of public and private sector organizations for corruption risks.
“AFA representatives shared their experience in these areas, explaining how audits contribute to increasing transparency and efficiency of processes in public and private sector companies and have a positive impact on their reputation and investment attractiveness,” said NACP Deputy Head.
He noted that the AFA, like NACP, is a policy-making body, so joint expert consultations are of great importance to both parties.
"Our French colleagues are particularly interested in the NACP's experience in implementing the Anti-Corruption Strategy and the SAP in prioritizing corruption-sensitive areas for further reform, identifying key issues (points) of the State Anti-Corruption Program, and technical features of the State Anti-Corruption Program Monitoring Information System. For our part, we aim to adopt the best practices of the AFA in implementing the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive. Such cooperation will help strengthen our institutional capacities and develop more effective anti-corruption mechanisms,” emphasized NACP Deputy Head.
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AFA is the agency responsible for building transparency, fighting corruption and modernizing economic life in France.
It is a coordinating and advisory body to the government on anti-corruption policy, and is also responsible for conducting audits of private and public companies subject to statutory compliance requirements. The purpose of the body is to implement policies to prevent and detect corruption, influence peddling, extortion by public officials, embezzlement of public funds and favoritism, i.e. offenses covered by the concepts of “corruption” and “corruption offense.”
In December 2023, during bilateral meetings with representatives of France and Colombia at the 10th session of the Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption, NACP presented to the AFA representatives the capabilities of the unified digital internal corruption reporting channel introduced in Ukraine - the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal.
