5 Regional Seminars in the Framework of Business Integrity Week were held in Ukraine

A series of regional seminars "Business Integrity: Join, Implement and Win" is organized by the Ukrainian Network of Integrity and Compliance (UNIC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine with the support of the Business Ombudsman Council (BOC) and the National Agency of Corruption Prevention (NACP). During July-August 2018 five seminars were held in the biggest cities in Ukraine excluding Kyiv: Kharkiv, Lviv, Odesa, Vinnytsia and Dnipro.

"The purpose of the seminars is to promote business integrity among state-owned and private enterprises and present best practices of implementing anti-corruption compliance among successful businesses in Ukraine. We want to demonstrate real-life examples that can inspire and motivate companies in Ukraine to implement high ethical standards in business operation. The discussion is about why business should cooperate, and what benefits of passing certification are." – states Head of the UNIC Secretariat Ganna Gerasymchuk.

Overall, the seminars reached more than 200 participants. The events gathered representatives of state- and municipality-owned companies, local state authorities, civil society organizations and media. The key topic of the seminars included discussion on the issues of fighting corruption and doing business transparently in the regions. The participants had a chance to learn theories on how transparent business can help fight corruption, as well as to participate in the training aimed at improving business integrity and compliance implementation skills.

The presentations of the speakers also included the case studies of implementing compliance programmes. Among the speakers – more than 15 leading experts in Ukraine in the areas of business protection, compliance and anti-corruption programmes, business management and law: Nazar Grom, UNDP, Andriy Smaga and Kateryna Panasyuk, NACP, Olena Suchyk, METRO Cash & Carry, Pavlo Verkhniatskyi, COSA, Andriy Volos, ELEKS, Andriy Kavchuk, Bachynsky, Kolomiets and Partners, Oleg Antonenko, Aisberg, Volodymyr Svintsitskyi, Arzinger, Maria Cherniavska, Carlsberg, Nadia Vynokurova, Plastics, Yulia Odarchenko, Siemens, as well as BOC Investigators Oleksiy Spivak, Oleg Krykavskyi, Volodymyr Kutsenko, Olena Kutsay and Yuriy Gaidai.

In September 2018, organizers plan to hold such seminars in Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernigiv.