Transparency
International
Ukraine

Thanks to the concerted efforts of the expert anti-corruption community, Ukraine received laws to launch an effective anti-corruption reform. On October 14, 2014, the Parliament voted on the anti-corruption laws approved by the Government, which had been drafted by public experts.

TI Ukraine, together with a group of anti-corruption experts and in close coordination with the specialized authorities (primarily the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine), developed a concept of anti-corruption reform, prepared draft regulatory acts, necessary for its launch, and advocated for the adoption of five major anti-corruption laws. Thus, in 5 years, in 2019, a full-fledged anti-corruption architecture was finally created in Ukraine — the NABU, the SAPO, the NACP, the ARMA, and the HACC started working at the same time.

In subsequent years, TI Ukraine took a number of steps to build and maintain anti-corruption infrastructure.

Despite the resistance to the old system and Kremlin narratives, the inevitability of punishment for corruption is no longer an unattainable goal. In three years of work, the Anti-Corruption Court passed 81 sentences in the first instance, of which 68 sentences were indictments, 25 were sentences approving a plea agreement, and 10 sentences were acquittals.

The issue of the recovery of proceeds derived from crimes has never been higher on the political agenda in Ukraine than it is now in the context of recovery planning.

For many years, TI Ukraine has made a significant contribution to the blocking, confiscation, and management of assets, first of the criminal organization of Yanukovych, and now — of russian assets in general.

In Ukraine, all the necessary tools are available at the legislative level, so that those who abuse the official position do not remain unpunished. There are also a number of laws that are designed to channel russian assets to the Ukrainian military and post-war needs.

In 2015, TI Ukraine, together with its partners, made great efforts to have the law “On Public Procurement” adopted by the “old” Verkhovna Rada. In fact, this law was the first anti-corruption initiative to come into force after the Revolution of Dignity.

Prozorro public procurement system not only saves billions, but is one of Ukraine's brands. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) offers it as a framework for the development of other countries' procurement systems.

To ensure equal rules of the game in the Prozorro system, the monitoring portal DOZORRO was launched on November 1, 2016. Anyone can submit feedback on a procurement transaction through the portal. Hundreds of thousands of citizens have used this opportunity.

The DOZORRO community has brought together procuring entities, businesses, CSOs, and anyone who dreams about effective public procurement.

We are talking about more than 20 CSOs and their representatives who, under the mentoring and coordination of TI Ukraine, detected and contested tens of thousands of violations in procurement transactions. Government representatives and procuring entities were actively engaged in the network. The first were Ukrposhta, Mariupol City Council, Kharkiv City Council, and others.

The DOZORRO community is looking for violations in procurement and has already referred more than 30,000 appeals to law enforcement and supervisory bodies. The team organized hundreds of training workshops, attended by tens of thousands of people, is improving legislation and preparing sectoral reports on the work of Prozorro. In addition, our team is developing a powerful and unique 360-degree procurement analysis tool, BI Prozorro.

Until recently, billion-worth sales of public and municipal property took place under opaque and often corrupt schemes. As a result, local and national budgets did not receive funds for the development of infrastructure, educational institutions, etc. There was a need for a system that could ensure transparent, rapid, and efficient sale of public property. Therefore, in 2016, Transparency International Ukraine joined the creation of the project as a guarantor of its integrity and administrator of the central database. In two years, the scope of Prozorro.Sale activities have expanded from the sale of assets of insolvent banks to the sale of property of state-owned enterprises, the right to lease, advertising, and municipal assets.

In fact, TI Ukraine helped the state change the rules of the game and promoted a transparent, rapid, and effective process of selling public and municipal property assets with a high level of public control and prevention of corruption.

More than UAH 60 billion at online auctions in the Prozorro.Sale system helped fill the budgets of different levels.

In total, there were more than 85,000 successful online auctions in the system.

4,600 organizers announce auctions in the system. More than 50,000 participants took part in the auctions in more than 6 years of the system's operation.

During the war, Prozorro.Sale helped fill the budgets of various levels with UAH 2.3 bln. During the war, agreements on 8,800 auctions were concluded.

The Revolution of Dignity has opened a window of opportunity in many directions. It became evident that there were also critical issues at the local level that it was time to work with. Local authorities in Ukraine lacked transparency and accountability or were only formally transparent. And the local public, which identifies manifestations of corruption in the work of self-government bodies, lacked tools of influence.

That is why TI Ukraine launched the Transparency Ranking of the 100 largest cities in Ukraine. It is the basis for improving cities: city councils implement the recommendations of TI Ukraine and compete with each other, and citizens get more opportunities to monitor and influence the activities of municipalities. Moreover, an ethical business is more willing to invest in those cities where there is less corruption, and transparent business procedures are in force. Thus, the level of corruption decreases, and the role of civil society grows.

Over the past 5 years, the average level of transparency has increased by 62.2%. In addition, we began to assess the accountability of Ukrainian cities and teach them how to improve it.

Cities do not just introduce new services, but make them technologically modern. In 5 years, a third of the 100 city councils studied have developed electronic tools for applying for improved housing conditions and obtaining a place or service in social care institutions. 82 city councils have online systems for registering children in higher education institutions, three of them are based on blockchain.

Thanks to the publication of information by cities, including lease agreements for land plots or municipal property, zoning plans and detailed plans of territories, draft decisions on land issues, it was possible to improve the transparency of areas that traditionally have high corruption risks of land use and municipal property. Over the past 5 years, the transparency of these areas has increased by 9% and 35%, respectively.

By implementing the recommendations of the TI Ukraine team, municipalities create additional tools and opportunities for community participation in the life of the city. Citizens can leave complaints regarding procurement on the Dozorro portal, attend meetings of the city council or its bodies without hindrance, and influence local policies through public hearings and the participatory budget.

Since 2014, TI Ukraine has conducted extensive creative communication campaigns. They motivated hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to resist corruption at the domestic level.

According to the results of the public opinion poll conducted by Pact, the share of those who believe that citizens cannot influence the level of corruption has decreased by half (from 34.8% in 2018 to 17.5% in 2021).

In recent years, the proportion of citizens reporting increased awareness of ways to combat corruption has grown. Namely:

• to report cases of corruption to the prosecutor's office or the police (in person or by phone) +32% (from 32% in 2019 to 64% in 2021)
• anonymous online reports of corruption or electoral violations +29% (from 25% in 2019 to 54% in 2021)
• open reporting on corruption in the media +26% (from 29% in 2019 to 55% in 2021)
• initiation and signing of electronic petitions to the mayor, city, district, regional council, President +34% (from 30% in 2019 to 64% in 2021).

We believe that we were part of this change!

TI Ukraine also joined the launch of initiatives that later became independent organizations or coalitions.

RISE UA

During the Conference in Lugano on the reconstruction of Ukraine, representatives of civil society and the state announced the creation of a new coalition of Ukrainian organizations and international partners — RISE Ukraine. The purpose of the coalition is to promote the principles of integrity, sustainability, and efficiency in the reconstruction of Ukraine.

RISE Ukraine promotes 10 principles of reconstruction and modernization of Ukraine. They have already been supported by the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), and other leading state institutions.

RISE UA engages Ukrainian and international CSOs, initiatives, government agencies, and leading experts. The coalition will help the public sector, citizens, businesses, and international communities rebuild Ukraine and make it more resilient.

Every Ukrainian should be engaged in Ukraine's reconstruction. Our citizens can and even should participate in the discussion of priorities and fair planning, monitor the implementation of projects and, if necessary, report potential corruption or its risk.

Reanimation Package of Reforms

Transparency International Ukraine joined the creation of the platform “Reanimation Package of Reforms” (2014). It is a voluntary association of CSOs. Its purpose is to support and promote reforms to build an independent, democratic, legal Ukrainian state with a wealthy society and equal opportunities for development and self-realization, as well as to promote the consolidation of civil society in Ukraine. At different times, the RPR coalition brought together dozens of CSOs and more than 300 experts who cooperated in 21 specialized groups.

NAKO (the Independent Defence Anti-Corruption Committee, Independent Anti-Corruption Commission)

A civil society organization that counteracts corruption in the field of defense and supports practices of transparency and integrity. NAKO is a joint initiative of Transparency International Defence and Security (Britain) and the Ukrainian branch of Transparency International. NAKO brings together Ukrainian public figures, journalists, as well as world experts to counteract corruption in the field of security and defense.

ACREC

The Interdisciplinary Anti-Corruption Research and Education Centre in Ukraine (ACREC) carries out educational, scientific, and awareness-raising activities and unites Ukrainian and foreign specialists, scientists, students, and experts in the field of prevention and counteraction to corruption. Among the founders, in addition to TI Ukraine, are the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy,” the Anti-Corruption Action Centre, Kyiv-Mohyla Foundation of America.

CoST

The construction sphere is one of the least transparent and accountable, not only in Ukraine, but also in the whole world. In 2015, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, Ukravtodor, TI Ukraine, and CoST International signed a Memorandum on the implementation of transparency standards in the construction sector in Ukraine.

Thus, the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST) appeared — a voluntary multinational initiative, the main purpose of which is to increase the transparency and accountability of construction projects funded by the budget and at the expense of non-budgetary funding (investments, IFI loans, etc.).

TI Ukraine actively defends the interests of the state and advocates for the necessary changes in the international arena. It is crucial to have a strong, reasoned position among our international partners, especially in times of war.

Representatives of TI Ukraine have participated in the International Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC 2022) in Lugano, in the Europe Regional Meeting of the Open Government Partnership in Rome, and in the International Expert Conference on the Recovery, Reconstruction and Modernisation of Ukraine in Berlin.

The organization also works closely with the IMF employees of European and American institutions, MEPs, Transparency colleagues from other countries, and many others.

The organization also has several projects in cooperation with international institutions and organizations.

Together with Basel Institute on Governance we prepared a policy paper on the topic «Anti-corruption as a critical condition for sustainable recovery» for the international conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine, held on July 5 in Lugano.

Within the framework of the project supported by the Visegrád Fund, TI Ukraine implemented the project «Tackling corruption in public procurement in Ukraine and V4 countries with new approaches» together with the ePanstwo Foundation (Poland), K-Monitor (Hungary) та Datlab(Czech Republic). In addition, we funded research and conducted 3 public workshops where best practices of TI Ukraine K-Monitor and Datlab were presented.

Within the framework of the project «Open Contracting in Romania», TI Ukraine shares its experience in advocacy and implementation of the principles of open contracting in Ukraine with the partner organization Funky Citizens. We conducted workshops for CSOs/journalists and business representatives.

Every year, Transparency International presents the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). The organization itself does not conduct its own surveys. The Index is calculated based on 13 studies of reputable international institutions and think tanks.

The key indicator of the Index is the score, not the rank. The minimum score (0 points) means that corruption actually replaces the government, while the maximum (100 points) indicates that corruption is almost absent in society. The index assesses corruption only in the public sector.

CPI includes the point of view of business representatives, investors, market researchers, etc. It reflects the private sector’s perspective and its perception of corruption in the public sector.

As part of data presentation, TI Ukraine annually provides recommendations to the authorities to improve the position. Notably, since 2012, Ukraine's indicators have significantly improved. It was among the 25 countries that recorded statistically significant growth over the 10-year period. Armenia, Angola, Greece, and Italy are on the list as well.

With the beginning of the full-scale invasion of russia, the TI Ukraine team was also engaged in direct assistance to the front and rear. Two lawyers of the organization immediately went to war. In addition, the team searched, procured, and handed over the necessary things to the military, needed to protect our country. In the first 100 days of the war alone, the team purchased and handed over 650 first-aid kits, 100 pairs of tactical glasses, 90 power banks, 65 pairs of army boots, 60 pairs of protective masks and glasses, 30 ballistic helmets, 11 bulletproof vests, 10 thermal imagers, and more.

TI Ukraine also searched for and sent humanitarian assistance to Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Borodianka, and Zaporizhzhia: clothing, equipment, protective equipment, medicines, etc., through personal efforts and by joining efforts with other volunteers.

In addition, we have come to have new areas to work on: strengthening sanctions against russia, withdrawal of businesses from russia, confiscation of russian assets, etc. The team continues to monitor legislative initiatives in this area, regularly analyzes government decisions, describes possible risks, and provides recommendations.

TI Ukraine has become co-founder of the RISE UA Coalition. This is a coalition of Ukrainian and international CSOs, initiatives, state institutions, and activists who support our Principles for Ukraine’s Reconstruction and Modernization through a constructive dialogue with the authorities and international partners.

It is about uniting to promote the principles of integrity and participation for the development of Ukraine, building accountability mechanisms for reconstruction, timely disclosure of data, developing digital solutions for reconstruction, and engaging citizens and businesses in planning, monitoring, and supervision.