The full implementation of the State Anti-Corruption Program approved by the Government is a prerequisite for Ukraine to achieve the economic growth goals set out in the Recovery Plan and to succeed in country’s European integration, said Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine.

“To achieve the ambitious economic growth targets set forth in the Recovery Plan and to move dynamically towards our key goal of EU and NATO membership, the implementation of the measures envisaged by the State Anti-Corruption Program is of key importance. We must expand and strengthen what has already been done in this area, improve the system of preventing and combating corruption, and create the most favorable conditions for investors and businesses,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

The Ministry’s work to minimize corruption risks in various sectors of the economy is ongoing. For example, in just two months of this year:

• The Interagency Working Group on Accelerated Review of State Regulation of Economic Activity has analyzed the state regulation instruments of the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, as well as instruments in the areas of aviation, roads, transport safety, tourism, etc. The abolition of redundant and unnecessary instruments, such as licenses, permits, approvals, or their transfer to “peopleless” and “paperless” modes, reduces corruption risks and creates favorable conditions for business. The work on revising the tools is ongoing.
• Solutions have been developed to return procurement via the Prozorro system. In particular, the Government’s Resolution No. 157 reduces the number of grounds for procurement without using Prozorro. Work is underway to expand the system’s capabilities, which will allow procurement for law enforcement agencies to be made through Prozorro in compliance with information security requirements.
• Prozorro.Sale auctions for fishing have been launched – in the first month, they have already brought more to the budget than in the previous year.
• A draft law on the reform of the State Reserve Agency has been developed and approved by the Government. The adoption and implementation of the law will not only create a modern system of state reserves meeting Western standards, but also minimize the possibility of corruption and abuse in this area.

In the future, as part of implementation of the State Anti-Corruption Program, the Ministry will work to take appropriate steps in these and other areas. In particular, the Ministry of Economy will start working on the following priorities in the near time:

• ensuring the conduction of an analytical study of regulatory acts introducing electronic auctions and systems for access to a limited common resource, regarding their actual implementation and functionality, in particular, in the area of access to natural resources;
• drafting amendments to a standard form contract with a state-owned enterprise head obliging the head to implement standards of corruption prevention in enterprise’s activities and provide guarantees of independence of the anti-corruption commissioner;
• supporting the consideration of a draft Law of Ukraine “On basic principles of state supervision (control)” in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine;
• developing and submitting to the Government a draft law providing, in particular, the approval of the State Ownership Policy, the development and approval of individual ownership policies at state-owned enterprises, and requirements for the content of the relevant ownership policies;
• drafting a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers on the disclosure of information in the form of open data during martial law providing for the disclosure of information from the registers of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, and the Ministry of Economy during martial law;
• preparing an analytical report for a reasonable determination of the criteria for mandatory independent audit of state-owned enterprises or the establishment of mandatory independent audit for all state-owned enterprises without exception;
• developing and submitting to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine a draft law determining, in particular, a competitive and transparent procedure for the formation of supervisory boards of state-owned enterprises, requirements for independent members of supervisory boards, clear and transparent performance indicators for supervisory boards, etc.
• preparing and submitting to the Cabinet of Ministers a draft law improving the functioning of the Unified Register of Objects of State-Owned Property and providing for the creation of an information resource based on the relevant register for the publication of information on state-owned and municipally owned enterprises, etc.

Overall, the Program will result in the introduction of new corporate governance standards in public sector entities, and enhanced public control over the activities of business entities in which the state has a stake. Particular attention will be paid to enhancing the transparency of privatization processes and to steps that would encourage the private sector to improve business integrity.

As a reminder, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the State Anti-Corruption Program at its meeting on March 3. The program was developed as part of implementation of the Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2021-2025.