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Ukraine

Ukraine Design Report 2018-2020

Ukraine’s fourth action plan resulted from collaboration with various channels of civil society engagement. Commitments largely focused on transparency across themes, including public finance, construction, security, environment, and education. Moving forward, the government needs to intensify its anticorruption efforts, advance beneficial ownership transparency, and create accountability safeguards in the privatization of state assets.

Table 1. At a glance
Participating since:  2011
Action plan under review:  Fourth
Report type:  Design
Number of commitments:   17
 
Action plan development
Is there a Multistakeholder forum: Yes
Level of public influence:  Collaborate
Acted contrary to OGP process: No
 
Action plan design
Commitments relevant to OGP values:  15 (88%)
Transformative commitments:  2 (12%)
Potentially starred 2: (12%)
 
Action plan implementation
Starred commitments: N/A
Completed commitments: N/A
Commitments with Major DIOG*: N/A
Commitments with Outstanding DIOG*: N/A
 
*DIOG: Did it Open Government?

The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a global partnership that brings together government reformers and civil society leaders to create action plans that make governments more inclusive, responsive, and accountable. The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) monitors all action plans to ensure governments follow through on commitments. Ukraine joined OGP in 2011. Since then, Ukraine has implemented three action plans. This report evaluates the design of Ukraine’s fourth action plan.

General overview of action plan

OGP in Ukraine is a highly collaborative effort. The multistakeholder forum includes an equal number of representatives from the government and from civil society, and holds decision making power. The development of the action plan includes various citizen engagement and an iterative deliberation process.

The major circumstances that might affect open government in the country are the outcomes of the presidential elections in March 2019 and the snap parliamentary elections in July 2019. The newly elected government will need to ensure the sustainability of open government reforms.

While the fourth plan largely focuses on access to information, it does so across a diversity of themes, including e-services, public finance, construction and extraction sectors, corruption prevention, security, environment, and education. It also contains commitments enhancing civic participation in authority interactions and of monitoring public procurement. Most of the commitments are of moderate potential impact, while some, such as ensuring transparency in selling public assets and creating a mechanism to verify ultimate beneficial ownership, could potentially be transformative.

Table 2. Noteworthy commitments

Commitment description Moving forward Status at the end of implementation cycle
Commitment 3: Ensure transparency of selling public assets This commitment aims to launch a transparent system for selling public assets. Moving forward, Parliament will need to adopt the law on mandatory auctions of public leasehold assets. Note: this will be assessed at the end of the action plan cycle.
Commitment 7: Launch the mechanism of verifying ultimate beneficial ownership This commitment will require solid implementation efforts. Going forward, the government could introduce multiple mechanisms for verifying information, such as automatic cross-checks with bank records and other registries. Also, the Cabinet of Ministers can table the draft law on the prevention of money laundering, which would introduce sanctions for violating the law. Note: this will be assessed at the end of the action plan cycle.
Commitment 11: Create an interactive map of mined territories This commitment will lead to the publication of more accurate information on areas affected by mine contamination due to Russia’s military intervention, thereby helping affected communities and local authorities. Moving forward, the focus should be on the information technology that will underpin the map, including more frequent checks and a more secure server to host the map. Note: this will be assessed at the end of the action plan cycle.

 

Recommendations

The IRM recommendations aim to inform the development of the next action plan and guide implementation of the current action plan.

Table 3. Five KEY IRM Recommendations

1. Develop a communications plan on OGP.
2. Use the OGP process to generate new approaches to ongoing initiatives.
3. Establish and implement the verification system on beneficial ownership of companies.
4. Ensure safeguards for transparency and accountability of privatization of state assets.
5. Improve public accountability of budget spending.

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Filed under: IRM IRM Report

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