The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released its Anti-Corruption and Integrity Outlook 2026, featuring data from 37 member states and 25 partner countries, including Ukraine. Based on the OECD Public Integrity Indicators, the Outlook provides an in-depth analysis of anti-corruption strategies, lobbying frameworks, conflict-of-interest regulations, political financing, and public information transparency. The report also introduces new assessments of integrity mechanisms within judicial and disciplinary systems, alongside approaches to managing corruption risks in public procurement. The analysis focuses specifically on measuring and comparing regulatory standards against their practical implementation in each jurisdiction.
Ukraine achieved some of the highest marks across nearly all categories, consistently outperforming the OECD average. Regarding strategic framework standards, Ukraine meets 73% of regulatory criteria and 80% of implementation criteria, whereas OECD countries average 38% and 32%, respectively. Ukraine also demonstrates a high level of sustainability in executing its strategic anti-corruption documents.
In lobbying, Ukraine has emerged as a leader alongside Canada, France, and Estonia, meeting 80% of the regulatory and 89% of the implementation criteria. Unlike most OECD members and partners, Ukrainian legislation ensures transparency regarding beneficial ownership and mandates sanctions for lobbying violations. Furthermore, Ukraine's Transparency Register provides one of the most comprehensive datasets on lobbyists, their activities, and expenditures—a level of detail matched only by Romania.
In assessing conflict of interest, the OECD highlighted Ukraine’s advanced e-declaration system, which enables risk-based asset verification for public officials. The report specifically noted the high rate of declarations submitted by the judiciary. While Ukraine’s regulatory framework for conflict of interest is fully compliant, practical implementation currently stands at two-thirds.
The regulatory framework for political finance is 100% compliant with OECD requirements, with implementation reaching 71%. Ukraine is among the top third of nations where political parties are strictly required to adhere to transparency and financial reporting standards.
Regarding judicial integrity, Ukraine fulfills 97% of regulatory criteria and 92% of practical implementation—one of the highest scores among all monitored countries. For prosecutorial integrity, these figures stand at 69% and 79% respectively, significantly exceeding the OECD averages of 66% and 52%. While noting these slightly lower relative scores, the OECD emphasised that they still surpass the organisational average. Experts observed that while the selection process for prosecutors is generally competitive and transparent, the appointment process for senior positions in both the judiciary and the prosecution remains non-meritocratic.
In developing its disciplinary system for civil servants, Ukraine meets 92% of regulatory criteria and 33% of practical implementation (compared to OECD averages of 66% and 22%). Experts suggested that the country lacks a centralised electronic management system for disciplinary cases to facilitate easier searches and automated data analysis.
“The new OECD assessments confirm the high quality of Ukraine’s anti-corruption policy design and its solid implementation of integrity standards found in developed nations. Given our advanced regulatory framework, we must now focus on the operational component—refining the practical application of established rules and procedures. This will allow us to translate the best public administration standards into higher living standards for our citizens. Furthermore, these indicators serve as a reliable foundation for deepening Ukraine's integration into key OECD initiatives and the organisation as a whole,” stated Viktor Pavlushchyk, Head of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP).
On March 25, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine sent an official letter to the OECD requesting accession to the OECD Council Recommendation on Public Integrity, attaching information on Ukrainian legislation, policies, and practices that align with the provisions of this legal instrument. The accession procedure was initiated by the NACP, which played a leading role in analysing the current legislative framework.
The Recommendations include international standards for building public integrity based on the principles of forming a comprehensive integrity system, a corresponding culture in the public sector, and effective accountability. One of the key tools for measuring the implementation of these principles is the Public Integrity Indicators—an initiative that involves collecting and summarising data that allows states to compare their results with the OECD averages and other countries.
As a reminder, Ukraine is one of the first non-OECD member and non-associate countries to join the Public Integrity Indicators initiative and provide data across four data blocks (quality of the strategic framework, accountability in public policy-making, effectiveness of internal control and risk management, and integrity of the judicial and disciplinary systems). At the same time, our state demonstrated high indicators (above the OECD average) for most of the criteria under which the data was collected.
