Enhancing Integrity in Local Communities on the way to EU-integration

On 20 July, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) and ULEAD with Europe brought together Ukrainian communities at the “Forum of Integrity Communities” to promote effective local development that will bring Ukraine closer to European standards of good governance.

Oleksandr Novikov, the Head of the NACP, launched the event with an opening speech.

 "Our task is to create conditions for the culture in Ukraine to be changed to a culture of integrity, and the number of violations to decrease. But we will not cope with this task without systematic work and strong local governments, civil society, and journalists.  We have to move the country towards integrity, and thus towards security and prosperity. Then the state will spend money on economic and social projects, not on punitive agencies," said Novikov. 

 Allan Pagh Kristensen, the Head of the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine (EUACI), spoke about the results of EUACI's partnership with six Ukrainian cities under the Integrity Cities project and shared plans for integrity reconstruction.

 "The EUACI actively cooperates with 6 cities, the so-called Integrity Cities, and assists them in building integrity practices. Even in these difficult times, the cities continue to pursue our joint integrity agenda. In particular, we cooperate with Mykolaiv in the field of integrity of reconstruction. 

We assist in areas such as systems for accounting the damages caused by the war, monitoring international assistance, developing IT products, conducting internal audits and improving procurement processes. We also support the inclusiveness of the recovery process, including by facilitating the interaction between the authorities and representatives of civil society and businesses," shared Allan Pagh Kristensen.

At the initiative of the NACP, the Declaration on Building Integrity of Local Governments was signed during the Forum. The present mayors, including the mayors of Lviv and Dnipro, as well as the head of the Kherson City Military Administration, called on their colleagues to join the signing of the Declaration.