Corruption or Dignity: What do Ukrainians choose? – is the name selected by the Promoting Active Citizen Engagement in Combating Corruption in Ukraine (ACTION) Project for its final conference held on November 30 – December 1, 2009 in the conference hall of the President Hotel. During the conference, the Project Team summarized the results of three years of its work and developed joint strategies for civil society and authorities to combat corruption in Ukraine.

During the conference, the Project Team:

• Evaluated the results and outcomes of ACTION Project activities
• Presented the best anti-corruption practices utilized by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as the experiences and challenges encountered by researchers, civil society organizations and journalists in their work
• Developed and presented recommendations by Project beneficiaries and partner organizations to government authorities regarding the further development of anti-corruption policies and strategies aimed at combating corruption in Ukraine
• Presented awards to governmental representatives from various levels and NGO activists for the results they achieved in the fight against corruption.

The conference was attended by:

• Representatives of the research organizations that carried out 14 nation-wide research projects to evaluate the Ukrainian corruption situation.  Their work, completed within the framework of this Project, was compiled into a publicly accessible database of sociological research on corruption that had been carried out at the local, regional, and national levels; 
• Representatives of civil society organizations – Project beneficiaries that implemented 114 public advocacy campaigns and facilitated the approval of 130 reforms at local, regional, and national levels in various spheres, including access to information, improved function of one stop-shop activities, the streamlining of entrance procedures for higher education institutions, the simplification of regulations regarding land transactions and construction at the local level, promoting transparency among the public authorities, improving service provision in the housing and utilities sector, etc.
•  Journalists representing national and regional media outlets that had carried out journalist investigations on corruption-related problems. Their publications, or reports, became the grounds for law-enforcement investigations and court cases
• Representatives of governmental organizations from various levels that cooperated with the Project and facilitated the approval of reforms throughout the Ukrainian regions.
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Conference participants presented their project results, challenged the authorities to act and provided recommendations that had been jointly by research organizations, NGOs, and journalists concerning legal information and educational activities, regulatory policy, training and behavioral ethics affecting civil servants, investigatory journalism, and the research sphere.

In the sphere of legal information and educational activities, participants recommended that procedures be developed that would dictate which information should be published and the process for notifying the public regarding this information.  They also recommended that the government and public would benefit from the development and provision of e-services accessible through the municipal websites. 

In the regulatory policy sphere, it was suggested that the Single National Registry of Regulatory Documents should be developed and regularly updated, regional and branch registries of regulatory documents should be created, the Law of Ukraine “On the Licensing System in the Sphere of Economic Activities” should be amended, and opportunities to file applications and requests with the authorities in electronic form should be created. Participants recommended that executive and local self-government bodies pay increased attention to the development of the qualifications and professionalism of civil servants and local self-government officers by implementing regular training programs.  Participants encouraged the support of projects and organizations that provide technical assistance to NGOs as well as government bodies – especially those activities focused on staff capacity development, the improvement of administrative services, and the mutual exchange of experience and information. Lastly, it was advised that the State Budget of Ukraine, as well as local budgets, should allocate sufficient resources for the provision of professional training, the implementation of regulatory documents, and monitoring of their efficiency. 

In the sphere of education, the conference participants suggested that schools introduce mandatory anti-corruption training for teachers.  They also encouraged the facilitation of capacity building among educators and informal education leaders by involving specialists (representatives of monitoring organizations), using international experience, and implementing joint international partner initiatives. Furthermore, participants emphasized the need for legislative provisions on external, independent testing that would ensure testing as the only factor for entrance to higher education institutions.  The need to revise and introduce mechanisms for considering monitoring results and incorporating recommendations made by civil society organizations with respective legislative provisions being added to the relevant normative legal documents.

Regarding the sphere of public servant ethics, the following recommendations were made: 1) general principles for ethical and efficient local self-government should be introduced within the Laws of Ukraine “On Local Self-Government in Ukraine”, “On the Status of Local Council Deputies” and “On Service in Local Self-Government Bodies”, 2) means for motivating civil servants to adhere to ethics standards and comply with public oversight mechanisms should be developed, 3) cooperation between authorities and NGOs should be encouraged, and 4) amendments should be introduced to the applicable laws.

In the sphere of journalist investigations, it was recommended that education for journalists should be reformed to become more similar to the practical work of the mass media staff. Participants also highlighted the need for clear enforcement mechanisms holding government authorities responsible for access to information violations. Additionally, it was noted that law enforcement bodies should bear responsibility for failing to react to the violations exposed by journalists.  In the interest of transparency, participants also recommended that the criteria for mandatory income declaration should be changed in order to increase the breadth of those required to report their income.

Concerning investigations, conference participants recommended that unbiased results from representative surveys be used in addition to the further monitoring of the status of corruption and the evaluation of anti-corruption activities.  This data should be used as the basis for tracking changes in the situation and assessing the efficiency of current anti-corruption programs. These Project results are likely to be useful to government authorities, donor organizations, NGOs, journalists, academics and businesses as well as to ordinary citizens. More specifically, it was recommended that a database be maintained of corruption research in Ukraine and that a single national research database be developed in the future.

More detailed information on the recommendations developed by research NGOs and journalists in each sphere can be found at www.action-msi.org.ua. 

Project Information:

The Promoting Active Citizen Engagement in Combating Corruption in Ukraine (ACTION) project was launched by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in December 2006. The Project supports non-governmental monitoring and advocacy in the fight against corruption, focusing particularly on priority issues identified by the Government of Ukraine in its Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Threshold Country Plan, namely: strengthening judicial reform; government monitoring and enforcement of ethical and administrative standards; streamlining and enforcing regulations; and combating corruption in higher education establishment institutions. The Project is implemented by Management Systems International (MSI) in partnership with Counterpart Creative Center (CCC), Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), Center for Ukrainian Reform Education (CURE), and other Ukrainian research and nongovernmental institutions.

The project has three major components: 1) support for civil society advocacy and monitoring efforts; 2) support for investigative journalism and other media anticorruption efforts, and 3) tracking of corruption indicators to define corruption baselines in particular functions and sectors, to monitor progress (or backsliding) in advocacy or reform strategies, to mobilize civil society, business and the mass media to action, and to demonstrate to government the critical nature of corruption in an objective way that is hard to refute.  These components are essential to furthering and measuring the Government of Ukraine’s progress and long-term commitment to the fight against corruption.

ACTION Project results