The European Union Anti-Corruption Initiative

The EU Anti-Corruption Initiative (EUACI) is a leading EU-funded anti-corruption program in Ukraine that is co-financed and implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. The program was launched in June 2017.

The overall goal of EU and Denmark's funding of anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine is to improve the implementation of anti-corruption policies in Ukraine, which will help reduce corruption. EUACI aims to strengthen the capability of the anti-corruption institutions and increase external control over the reforms by the Verkhovna Rada, civic society, and media.

The EUACI context has changed drastically since the beginning of the full-scale war. Today, the program is being implemented in Ukraine within the framework of its four components:

• Component I. Strengthening the operational and political capacity of state agencies involved in preventing and combating corruption. Within the framework of this component, EUACI cooperates with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA), the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), the State Financial Monitoring Service (SFMS), the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine (HACC), and the Ukrainian Parliamentary Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy (VAP).

• Component II "Integrity Cities." Strengthening the capabilities of the cities in applying good governance practices to prevent corruption. It was launched in 2018 and covered five cities: Zhytomyr, Mariupol, Nikopol, Chervonohrad and Chernivtsi. In 2022, the component was joined by Mykolaiv.

• Component III "Integrity Reconstruction." Increasing the transparency and accountability in managing current and future reconstruction and construction processes. Within the framework of this component, EUACI cooperates with the State Agency for Restoration and Development of Infrastructure of Ukraine and the Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine.

• Component IV. Increasing the culture of integrity issues in Ukraine through the engagement of the business sector, civic society and media.

EUACI and Mykolaiv

The cooperation between EUACI and Mykolaiv region began in late summer 2022. At that time, Denmark took the city under its patronage to work together on the formation of restoration projects and to attract investors from various countries.

Within the framework of the Integrity Cities program, the Mykolaiv City Council work with EUACI in several directions at the same time.

In particular, it deals with a comprehensive update of the procurement policy in the executive bodies and utility enterprises. Special attention is paid to the units involved in restoration.

Since 2022, work has begun on the destroyed and damaged facilities module of the Geospatial Information System (GIS). At the moment, the Architecture and Urban Planning Department is actively engaged in entering data in the subsystem.

Last year, the development of the ISpro system for automating the management of structural divisions of the Mykolaiv City Council began. The principles laid down in it help optimize all the main processes, in particular, accounting and tax accounting.

With the beginning of the full-scale war, Mykolaiv received support from many international organizations, countries, and cities. In order to use their aid transparently and efficiently, the city started working on a monitoring system. They created the city headquarters to coordinate all aid that enters the city, and approved the procedure for monitoring the treatment of humanitarian and charitable aid in the city at each stage. The next step was to create a website for partners and indifferent individuals.