During a working visit to the Kharkiv region, the team of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) met with representatives of regional and city authorities. Direct dialogue with the regions aims to establish constructive cooperation for the effective implementation of the state anti-corruption policy with a focus on local issues.
In communicating with local authorities, the deputy head of the NACP, Serhii Hupiak, focused on the areas most vulnerable to corruption in Kharkiv and the region.
According to him, in the Kharkiv region, these are the areas of rebuilding facilities destroyed or damaged as a result of military operations, construction of fortifications and procurement of wood for their construction. Sergiy Hupiak said this during a meeting with the head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration Oleh Syniehubov.
He emphasized that the National Agency has already conducted a study of corruption risks in some of these industries and developed recommendations for their elimination.
“The NACP has analyzed the implementation of the Government's pilot project to restore war-affected settlements, including the village of Tsyrkuny in the Kharkiv region, and identified the top 10 risks that should be taken into account in the project. These include prioritization of reconstruction objects, mechanisms for developing project documentation, selection of a contractor, and pricing of work. These issues require clear regulation by both state and local authorities,” said Serhii Hupiak.
The deputy head of the NACP drew special attention to the construction of fortifications in the region, noting that corruption risks in this area are primarily due to the impossibility of public reporting on the work on military facilities and the classification of relevant documentation. At the same time, he emphasized that public procurement in the sector should be conducted as transparently as possible.
According to Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, there are more than 200 sites in the region where fortifications are being built.
“We are conducting thorough inspections of the construction of all fortifications, for this purpose we have signed a memorandum with the National Scientific Center ‘Bokarius Institute of Judicial Expertise’. As part of the anti-corruption policy in the region, more than 70% of the construction sites have been inspected,” emphasized Syniehubov, adding that the results of these examinations will be made public, and the issue of fortifications is always covered at meetings of the working group at the Kharkiv Regional All-Ukrainian Association of Civil Society ‘Transparency and Accountability’.
At the meeting with the first deputy mayor of Kharkiv Oleksandr Novak, Serhii Hupiak also emphasized the priority areas where corruption should not take place: rebuilding of facilities destroyed by the enemy, management of utilities, and procurement.
According to the vice mayor, the city council leadership is aware of the importance of preventing corruption in these and other areas.
Although local governments are not required by law to have anti-corruption programs, the Kharkiv City Council has approved the Measures to Prevent Corruption Offenses in the Executive Bodies of the Kharkiv City Council for 2024. The city council also has a Corruption Prevention Service. In addition, last year, the Centralized Procurement Organization of the Kharkiv City Council was established, which has an anti-corruption focus,” said Oleksandr Novak.
Serhii Hupiak, in turn, emphasized the need to strengthen cooperation between the parties to build integrity in public service and local government.
“After studying the best practices in the field of corruption prevention, we presented our projects that will help us cooperate more effectively in this area. We will also develop recommendations for minimizing corruption risks in Kharkiv,” he emphasized.
In the dialogue with the local authorities, the deputy head of the NACP also paid attention to the work of anti-corruption commissioners, the implementation of the State Anti-Corruption Program and anti-corruption programs of local authorities, the connection of Kharkiv region organizations to the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal, and the work with the counterparty verification portal.
As a reminder, within the framework of the regional travel project, created to strengthen the NACP's cooperation with communities, local authorities, secondary and higher education institutions, journalists, and NGOs, and to promote building integrity through community engagement, the Agency's representatives have already visited Lviv, Dnipro, Chernivtsi, Zhytomyr, Ivano-Frankivsk, Vinnytsia, Lutsk, Cherkasy, and Khmelnytskyi. This was the second time the NACP representatives visited Kharkiv.
In August 2023, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov and Head of the Kharkiv Regional Council Tetiana Yegorova-Lutsenko signed the Declaration on Building Integrity of Local Self-Government Bodies with the NACP. The Declaration is a program document of the head of a local self-government body based on the best practices of corruption prevention and good governance at the local and regional levels. The Declaration of Building Integrity was also signed by the Slobozhansky Village Council of Kharkiv region.
