With the support of the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative City Mayors of ‘Integrity Cities’ project Oleksii Kaspruk (mayor of Chernivtsi) and Andrii Zalibskyi (mayor of Chervonohrad) as well as representatives of “ProZorro.Sale” (Kyiv), Regional Charitable Fund “UNION” (Kherson), Centre for Civic Initiatives "Skhidna Brama" (Mariupol), Bukovyna Agency for Regional Development (Chernivtsi) and CSO CentreUA (Kyiv) attended international conference in Toronto.
'Ukraine Reform Conference' started in Toronto on 2 July lasted 4 days and was devoted to an expert discussion on the progress of reforms in Ukraine. The participants discussed such topics as anti-corruption, innovations and the development of democracy in the state. A separate part was devoted to the topic of preserving the achieved results and ensuring the irreversibility of reforms.
On the Conference the partners of EUACI attended keynote speeches of high-level officials and panel discussions with the participation of leading international experts. Also they attended a number of presentations and networking-meetings held within unique platform ‘Ukraine House’ created as a side-event of the ‘Ukraine Reforms Conference’.
«ProZorro.Sale project is on a good account, in Toronto it was mentioned constantly during the Conference in the context of small-scale privatization as well as an example of new opportunities for local communities. Regarding the reforms in Ukraine there were discussions that it is necessary to preserve macro-economic stability, and then work on the same things even harder. That would not give fast wins, but the prospects are very interesting for everyone.» - said Oleksii Sobolev, Chief Executive Officer, state enterprise "PROZORRO.SALE"
In addition, for its partners EUACI has organized a study visit and the meeting with representatives of the integrity Office of the municipality of Toronto. During this visit Integrity Commissioner Mrs. Valerie Jepson presented key functions of the office, the system of accountability of the municipality and the approaches to its implementation and functioning..
For me the most important part of the study visit programme, prepared by the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative was meeting with the Commissioner for Integrity for the City Government of Toronto. City Government of Toronto – one of the world's leaders in ensuring transparency and accountability of the municipality.Integrity pre-supposes adherence by the elected representatives of the city council to the Code of Conduct, the Act on Conflict of Interests and other laws regulating the ethics of conduct. By the way, the post of Commissioner for Integrity is mandatory in all the municipalities of the province of Ontario. There were a lot of details regarding the work of the Commissioner, which, I believe, can be implemented at least partially in Chernivtsi, Chervonograd, Mariupol, Zhytomyr and Nikopol in the framework of the implementation of ‘Integrity Cities’ project – said Tetiana Lebukhorska, the Head of CSO "Bukovyna Agency for Regional Development".
«The Commissioner provides recommendations, receives complaints and if needed conducts investigations in the field of compliance with the Codes of Conduct by the members of the City Council, as well as with the legislation on municipal conflicts of interest and other regulations and policies the ethical conduct of MPs and the mayor» – said about The Commissioner capabilities Yuriy Antoshchuk, Open School in UA.
As international technical assistance Programme the EUACI values the importance of direct communication between agents of reforms in Ukraine and the international audience interested in Ukraine's development. The EUACI is happy to facilitate relations between its partners and representatives of state authorities of other countries. EUACI is confident that conference in Toronto is one of the incentives that could stimulate further reforms in Ukraine on the national and local levels.