Representatives of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) and the Basel Institute on Governance discussed key areas of current cooperation and plans for the next year. The priority is to reduce corruption risks in certain sectors and develop a draft Anti-Corruption Strategy of Ukraine for 2026-2030.
Deputy Head of NACP Serhii Hupiak, who is responsible for addressing corruption risks in various sectors, emphasized that NACP plans to present a study in early 2025 with recommendations on mitigating risks in the areas of customs control, reconstruction, and forestry. The latter study was conducted jointly with the Basel Institute on Governance (participation in the study was supported by Switzerland through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)) and involved specialized expert institutions and NGOs.
The parties assessed the first experience of such cooperation as successful and planned to expand it.
Juhani Grossmann, Senior Advisor for Central and Eastern Europe at the Institute, noted that the Institute is currently developing cooperation with Ukraine to build quality governance and is implementing projects in the areas of infrastructure, reconstruction, public procurement, defense, and subsoil use. Some of these topics are also included in the NACP plans to conduct sectoral research and prepare relevant recommendations for government agencies, so the Basel Institute's expert support is important.
These and other areas most vulnerable to corruption will also be the focus of the work of the NACP expert groups, which will begin preparing a number of studies that will form the basis of the new Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2026 - 2030 and its implementation program. After a thorough audit of all state functions, NACP units responsible for formulating the state anti-corruption policy have identified 20 most corruption-affected areas, which will be the focus of the new Strategy and Program. The first part of the expert groups' work will include analysis of Ukrainian and international legislation and identification of the biggest challenges in these areas. The second part will involve in-depth study of the problems, modeling of different solutions to these problems and development of ways to implement the most optimal ways to solve them.
"In order to create a high-quality new anti-corruption strategy, we will need to assess the effectiveness of the previous one (the current SAP for 2023-2025), make a qualitative analysis, and take into account its shortcomings and advantages. This requires a sophisticated system of performance indicators, and we would be grateful for help in building such a system, given the Basel Institute's extensive experience in developing and implementing governance systems in different countries,” said Deputy Head of NACP Dmytro Kalmykov.
He also added that when developing national program documents in the field of preventing and combating corruption, NACP will take into account EU legislation and recommendations of the European Commission, as anti-corruption and European integration are two inseparable processes that should be synchronized. NACP is responsible for organizing and supporting all major processes under the Anti-Corruption subsection of the negotiating chapter 23. In addition, NACP experts are working on all other negotiating chapters as part of the government team to ensure that Ukraine is as ready as possible for EU membership and has anti-corruption safeguards in all areas of the state's functioning.
The next Strategy and the SAP will consist of two components. The first part concerns the overall system of preventing and combating corruption related to the development of law enforcement and anti-corruption agencies and strengthening their independence. The second part is devoted to minimizing corruption in priority areas through in-depth reforms in line with EU legislation and international commitments.
Partners from the Basel Institute expressed their readiness to contribute to addressing these challenges and proposed a number of other areas of cooperation, such as training for NACP specialists involved in the search for illegally acquired assets abroad, organizing events to share experiences between countries, etc.
Basel Institute on Governance is an independent organization that works to fight corruption and improve governance around the world. The Institute actively cooperates with Ukraine, in particular with the NABU, the SAPO, the Prosecutor General's Office and the State Bureau of Investigation, providing expert and technical support. The National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and the Basel Institute have cemented their partnership in a memorandum of cooperation and have begun working together to combat corruption.
