Author: Adrian Bonenberger, UBJ – The Ukraine Business Journal

Transparency International-Ukraine’s study into the state of business practices in Ukraine produced joint leaders for the title of “most transparent” — Energoatom and Ukrtelecom.

And the national nuclear energy company said the distinction was a reward for longstanding efforts to comply with international standards.
The results of the two-month study into both state-run and privately-owned institutions, released last week, gave its authors hope that businesses throughout the country would act on its findings to adopt Western methods of accountability.

Energoatom and privately-held Ukrtelecom Joint Stock Company scored 8.9 out of a possible 10. PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih took third with a combined score of 8.4.

Recognition and responsibility

“For Energoatom, to be in the top ranks of Transparency International Ukraine’s corporate reporting recognizes the fact that we’re moving in the right direction with anti-corruption implementation,” Oleg Polishchuk, Director of Energatom’s Anti-Corruption Centre, told the UBJ.

“It’s also a responsibility. Energoatom will have to make more efforts in the fields of anti-corruption to keep improving.”

That is precisely what Dmytro Yakymchuk of TI Ukraine, one of the report’s authors, wanted to hear. He hopes that the report will help companies hold themselves to a higher standard, while recognizing companies that already do.

“We show the results of top-ranking companies as a good example for others to be more transparent, attractive, and effective,” he said.

Many companies performed poorly in at least one section and 30 of the 100 companies evaluated had yet to implement even basic transparency and anti-corruption measures required by law. Those companies included Toyota Ukraine, Arena Lviv, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority and the National Space Agency of Ukraine.

Polishchuk said his company had been preparing its transparency measures for some time.

“Energoatom was one of the first to develop and implement basic compliance systems, once transparency became legally necessary,” he said, “we saw the legislation was being drafted, prepared anti-corruption measures, and when the law was enacted, we were ready to implement our program in full. Other companies interested in compliance have modeled their efforts on our own.”

The report offered several recommendations geared toward opening corporations up to better anti-corruption mechanisms. Some efforts focused on driving change via legislation, but most sought to empower companies to adopt reforms internally.

Further Assessment

Transparency International Ukraine hopes to follow up on this report.

“It would be good to repeat this research in six or 10-12 months to see whether the companies made positive changes after our first study,” Yakymchuk said. “Many companies are not transparent according to the legally stated requirements and the majority of anti-corruption programs are formal documents rather than working policies.”