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The Ukrainian Civic Alliance “For integrity of public procurement” and the civic institution “Philosophy of the heart” on November 21, 2011 presented to public agents, public institutions, business, journalists and average people the caricatures exhibition “The price of the public procurement in Ukraine”.

HonorableViktorFedorovych!

On September 20, 2011, the wish of Ukraine to join the multi-lateral initiative “Open Government Partnership”, launched by the Presidents of the USA and Brazil and already involving 38 countries of the world, was officially declared by you as the state representative. It is important for us as the active civil society representatives to realize that the government of Ukraine is ready to make a commitment to substantially improve the condition in the following areas in short terms...

Representatives of the civil sector in Ukraine for the first time presented a report at the UN Convention against corruption at the international level. It happened during the conference of Member States to the UN Convention against Corruption, which was held on October, 24-28th   in Marrakesh (Morocco). The report was prepared by Creative Union “TORO” - Contact group Transparency International National Contact in Ukraine, entered the official documents of the Conference.

Civil experts conclude that the lack of public procurement development strategy in Ukraine lays the ground for theft from 40 to 60 billion of public funds each year. Creative Union “TORO” - National Contact in Ukraine Transparency International on behalf Ukrainian Civic Alliance “For the integrity of public procurement” sent come specific suggestions considering content development strategies to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov which were prepared according to the results of expert discussions on the topic “ Public discussion of approaches to strategy development public procurement system in Ukraine “, held with representatives of NGOs and international organizations, relevant government bodies and business.

Against the background of popular revolutions and protests throughout the world, governments left aside the civil society in the process of building the unified anti-corruption convention - the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) at the anti-corruption Summit on October, 24-28th in Marrakesh, Morocco. This issue has actively been discussing by governments all over the 5 days of the conference. The public sector of Ukraine was represented by Creative Union “TORO” - Transparency International National Contact Group in Ukraine.

Public organizations recently fixed the growth of authorities’ control over their activity. Particular, it concerns the collection of information about the PO, which is gathered by the State Tax Service of Ukraine and the official instructions of state administrations to local government.

On October 27, the Ukrainian Civic Alliance “For the integrity of public procurement” presented the caricatures exhibition “The price of the public procurement in Ukraine” for the journalists and society. The present people had an opportunity to estimate the nonsense of some powerful tenders and to vote for those, which were the most comical and illogical.

During the Ukrainian civil society leaders’ trip to the U.S., Victoria Cherevko (DemAlliance) and Oleksiy Khmara (TORO Creative Union) were invited to the Voice of America studio to address the issue of corruption. In their interview, Victoria and Oleksiy shared their vision of the current state of corruption in Ukraine, the role of civil society in eradication of this problem, and the mechanisms of fighting corruption. Also, they emphasized the role of initiative groups and civic councils in the control of local governments.

On the 10^th – 21^st of October, UNITER conducted a trip for a delegation of leading Ukrainian advocacy experts and think-tank analysts to Washington, D.C. The goal of the activity was to provide a view on Ukraine from the ground to Washington-based stakeholders and to brief them on the role and main achievements of CSOs as the drivers for reforms in Ukraine. The program of the trip included a series of briefings with US government officials, visits to US-based NGOs and think tanks (including Transparency International, Carnegie Center, Freedom House, and CIPE), and a public briefing at George Washington University.