The Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development launches a project aimed at strengthening the transparency and accountability of local self-government bodies and preventing corruption in municipalities. The project includes trainings for anti-corruption commissioners of municipalities.

The first step to implement the project was a survey among the anti-corruption commissioners of 170 city councils on their professional competencies. The survey, conducted with the support of the United Nations Development Programme, to be used in planning the commissioners' training.

"The professional work of anti-corruption commissioners of city councils is a key component in the efficient use of local self-government resources. The ability of municipalities to provide an effective anti-corruption policy and transparency of their activities remains one of the tasks of the commissioners, whose skills and knowledge we are going to improve. To this end, in particular, the Ministry already has a curriculum under development," said Serhii Derkach, Deputy Minister for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development.

According to the survey results, 56% of city council commissioners combine several positions. This situation may affect the quality and efficiency of their duties.

In addition, 14% of the commissioners have not received any kind of anti-corruption training. Almost 60% of the respondents indicated that the most relevant topic for the work of the commissioners is Resolving Conflicts of Interest among Local Self-Government Officials and Deputies.

Lutsk, Khmelnytskyi, and Kalush municipalities were selected for the pilot project to assess the anti-corruption system. The project results in the development/updating of anti-corruption programmes for municipalities. In the future, this experience is to be scaled up to other municipalities to develop standard anti-corruption programmes.

The survey was conducted by UNDP with the financial support from the Governments of Japan and Germany.