NABU and World Bank held a meeting with Odesa media
Exposing corruption schemes requires constant interaction between law enforcement and the public. Therefore, effective communication between each other is extremely important. The meeting of representatives of the World Bank and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine with media in Odesa took place on September 27, 2019. The participants discussed the results and perspectives of the implementation of anti-corruption reform, the World Bank’s support in the fight against corruption in Ukraine, as well as the role of media in the combating corruption.
David Bernstein, the Head of the World Bank Anti-Corruption Program Ukraine, stressed on the importance of active involvement of the public in exposing corruption offences and noted significant results in this direction. “The day before, jointly with our colleagues from the National Bureau, we talked with Odesa activists and representatives of NGOs. All of them showed their readiness to work side by side with the NABU Detectives, and most of them already have positive experience in such cooperation,” emphasized Mr. Bernstein.
Volodymyr Deulin, the Head of the NABU Odesa Territorial Office, expressed his gratitude to the World Bank representatives for their support. He also called on media representatives to keep an eye on the NABU`s investigations. Volodymyr Deulin noted that successful results of many investigations of NABU Detectives became possible, due to the work of the media. Every sixth investigation of the NABU is open because of journalistic investigations or it contains data from the media.
“I want to thank the media and, above all, the investigative journalists for their role in the fight against corruption. We have been working closely with you since the beginning of the NABU`s work. Currently we can call you our colleagues in the anti-corruption fight,” said Volodymyr Deulin.
The event was held in the framework of the World Bank’s all-Ukrainian campaign aimed at finding new forms of cooperation and ways of public interaction with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine. Representatives of about 20 Odesa media have visited the event. Earlier, similar events with the participation of representatives of the National Bureau and the World Bank took place in different cities of Ukraine (Vinnitsa, Lviv and Kharkiv).
