Country: Ukraine

Corruption and insecurity reinforce one another in conflict environments. Conflict often weakens state institutions and shifts the balance of expectations and incentives, entrenching corruption, undermining the development of state capacity, and encouraging cycles of impunity that leave whole populations angry and disenfranchised. This can be particularly pernicious when it affects defence and security institutions, turning them from protectors into predators that endanger human security, slow down development, and can perpetuate conflict.

International security assistance to Ukraine is not always used effectively, according to new research on corruption risks in security assistance outlined in the report Making the system work: enhancing security assistance to Ukraine, by the Independent Defence Anti-Corruption Committee (Nezalezhny Antikorrupciynii Komitet z pytan oborony, or “NAKO”) and Transparency International Defense and Security.

The report identifies improvements in how assistance is monitored, but calls for improved regulation and oversight of security assistance, and greater transparency of key strategic planning documents like the State Defense Order and defence budget. The report also called on donor countries to use international aid as a leverage to push for systemic anti-corruption reform in the Ukrainian defense sector.

The following publication contains the Terms of Reference for The Independent Defence Anti-Corruption Committee / Nezalezhny Antikorrupciynii Komitet z pytan oborony (NAKO)

Members of the the Independent Defence Anti-Corruption Committee / Nezalezhny Antikorrupciynii Komitet z pytan oborony (NAKO). NAKO’s committee is comprised of six members, three national – Sevgil Musaeva, Volodymyr Ogryzko, Oleh Rybachuk (co-chair) – and three international experts – Lt Gen Tim Evans, Drago Kos (co-chair), and James Wasserstrom.

The following publication is the mandate for the Independent Defence Anti-Corruption Committee (Nezalezhny Antikorrupciynii Komitet z pytan oborony) NAKO.

The mandate is as follows:

1) Monitoring & evaluation
2) Developing anti-corruption recommendations
3) Providing open, regular analysis and reporting
4) Promoting transparency
5) Contributing to policy
6) Strenghtening international and national accountability structures
7) Enabling citizen feedback