Ukraine's State Customs Service takes new steps to combat corruption with WCO support

23 мая 2024

In a significant move to further bolster efforts under its existing Anti-Corruption Programme, the State Customs Service (SCS) of Ukraine has officially partnered with the World Customs Organization’s Anti-Corruption and Integrity Promotion (A-CIP) Programme for Customs, thanks to funding from Norway. This partnership marks a pivotal step in Ukraine’s alignment with global standards to combat corruption and promote integrity in Customs.

For Ukraine, participation in the WCO A-CIP Programme is expected to further improve the business and law enforcement environment for cross-border trade in the country by leveraging the WCO’s integrity promotion and anti-corruption tools and access to resources, practices, and expertise among its 186 Members.  These will support Ukraine’s efforts as it continues to effect changes to the operational and administrative context that restrict corrupt behaviour and promote good governance in its State Customs Service. These changes will be guided by and align with WCO standards that seek specifically to combat corruption in Customs administration and operations.

An integral part of the SCS’s activities supported by the WCO A-CIP Programme will be to conduct a Customs Integrity Perception Survey (CIPS), which aims to assess quantitatively the perception of integrity in Customs by Customs officers and private sector stakeholders. The survey is intended to provide insights that can be used to target and adjust anti-corruption and integrity promotion measures specific to the Customs administrative and operational context. Additionally, the SCS will benefit from the Programme’s focus on the importance of leveraging advanced statistics and data management techniques to enhance decision-making processes within Customs services.

The WCO A-CIP Programme provides technical assistance and capacity-building support to WCO Member administrations implementing integrity-related initiatives in line with the WCO Revised Arusha Declaration Concerning Good Governance and Integrity in Customs.

For more information, please contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org.