Ganna Gerasymchuk has been appointed as the first head of the Ukrainian Network of Integrity and Compliance, or UNIC.
The initiative aims at curbing business corruption in Ukraine and unites companies willing to commit to integrity, ethics and the law.
“The main goal is to gather businesses who are ready to act in high ethical standards and to make clean business fashionable in Ukraine,” Gerasymchuk told the Kyiv Post on Feb. 16.
The initiative kicked off in May 2017 and is supported also by the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The 34-year-old Gerasymchuk, who has more than 10 years of experience in legal and compliance practices, officially started her position on Feb. 2 for a two-year contract. She worked as an in-house lawyer for construction company Hilti Ukraine and Nokian Tires Ukraine.
“I worked in a very challenging business area… so I know how important it is to be on the clean side of business activity,” she said. “Hilti Ukraine is a very good example of highly developed compliance culture which prevents even ideas for non-compliance deals or practices.”
One of the challenges for Gerasymchuk is that most companies in Ukraine do not understand the value of being compliant and honest despite them complaining about a difficult and corrupt business environment. For most companies compliance is an additional effort not worth the investment.
“But I would like to say that most of them did not even calculate how many losses they have because of compliance and integrity culture absence,” she said. “And when you start to calculate the real losses, you start to understand that your investment will get you more achievements in the future. It’s like a long-term investment.”
So far there are 55 members and UNIC plans to have more than 80 by the end of the year. Existing members have the ability to vote on whether they want others to join. UNIC also has an ethics committee that monitors the behavior of companies and can remove a member.
There are other countries that have a similar program. For example, UNIC collaborates with Lithuanian Clean Wave initiative that has existed for over a decade. It also collaborates with Transparency International and other organizations aiming to uproot corruption.
Ganna Gerasymchuk, head of Ukrainian Network of Integrity and Compliance.
Her main goal is to have more members join the initiative and “to make our voice stronger in business environment and with state bodies and authorities.”
For now UNIC’s office is in the same location as the Business Ombudsman Council but plans to have its own space soon. So far the initiative has only one more staff member responsible for administrative and press relations activities and is looking to hire another team member.
UNIC cooperates with regional business across Ukraine and organizes events for its members. For example, in April it will organize the Business Integrity Week in Lviv, Odesa and Dnipro. In the near future it also plans to create a Compliance Academy to partner with universities and academies. Right now it is cooperating with the Basel Institute of Governance and in discussion with the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy to collaborate as well.
