On February 12-16, 2024, the Corporate Governance Professional Association together with the Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine (Ministry of Infrastructure) conducted an online training program for anti-corruption officers. CGPA has once again enlisted the support of the EBRD Ukraine Stabilisation and Sustainable Growth Multi-Donor Account (Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union, the largest donor).
The Anti-Corruption Compliance Training Program participants were specialists, professionals, and those who have just started their steps in anti-corruption compliance in Ukrainian companies and state authorities. Among them were representatives of the Ministry of Infrastructure and state-owned enterprises and agencies under its control, including compliance and anti-corruption specialists from Ukrposhta, Ukrzaliznytsia, Boryspil Airport, the Service for Restoration and Development of Infrastructure of various regions, the State Aviation Administration, the Maritime Search and Rescue Service, the State Inspectorate for Architecture and Urban Development of Ukraine, etc.
During the program, Oleksandr Okuniev, Chairman of the CGPA Board of Directors, in response to the question, “Why is it worthwhile and necessary to talk about anti-corruption compliance today?” noted that the events of recent years indicate an attempt to make a global turn of Ukraine from east to west. Such a turnaround can only be successful if there is a fundamental change in the general attitude toward the factors that determine business success in the country. One of these factors is the attitude to corruption.
Kateryna Datsko, Executive Director of the NGO “Foundation for Institutional Development,” said: “In the ranking of problems that concern Ukrainians the most, corruption ranks third.”
The speakers of the program, namely Oleksandr Okuniev, Chairman of the CGPA Board of Directors, Olga Shenk, Partner of Dispute Resolution and Compliance Practice at CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang in Ukraine, Pavlo Verkhnyatsky, Founder and CEO of COSA, Oleg Lagodiyenko, Director of Ethicontrol, representatives of the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption on the work of the Commissioners, Anna Fedorenko, UNDP Ukraine National Consultant on strengthening coordination of the work of anti-corruption commissioners to increase transparency and accountability of the recovery process in Ukraine, Oleg Polishchuk, Member of the Board of the National Association of Anti-Corruption Compliance, Kateryna Lysova, Program Director, Eurasia Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE),Kateryna Datsko, Executive Director, and Olena Karpova, expert of the NGO “Foundation for Institutional Development”, shared their achievements and experience.
The program participants successfully completed the training, passed the test and defended their group work. Participants highly appreciated the knowledge and potential of the program’s teachers and organisers, as evidenced in their feedback after the program. Yana Gonchar, Chief Specialist on Corruption Prevention and Detection from the State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine, noted that this is a very useful program for development in the field of anti-corruption; in particular, she said that the lecturers paid special attention to how anti-corruption compliance is built, characterized its components and features. She was really impressed by the high level of expertise and the speeches of the lecturers in various areas. Yulia Manziak, Internal Control Specialist at the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in Khmelnytskyi Oblast, noted, “A good selection of lecturers and speakers. The topics are interesting, and, most importantly, the speakers have a practical example or an example from real cases for almost all the theses. Thanks to the program, I, as a newly appointed employee, have significantly expanded my knowledge base in the field of anti-corruption compliance.” Oleksandra Suvorova, Assistant Director for Corruption Prevention at the State Enterprise “Maritime Search and Rescue Service” (Odesa), clearly noted that it was an exciting and structured program that allowed for a more detailed understanding, use and implementation of anti-corruption compliance elements in the workplace.
All participants noted the program’s practicality and willingness to continue learning, especially emphasising the desire to analyse all the topics covered in the program in more detail and in a broader way.