On tools to prevent corruption in wartime

The first professional development workshop, themed “Competencies Needed to Develop and Implement National Programs of Integrity in the Defense Sector,” was held recently in Kyiv. The event was part of NATO’s Building Integrity and Transparency in the Defense and Security Institutions Initiative, and had the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine as its co-organizer. In an exclusive interview for The Day, Director for Integration, Partnership, and Cooperation in the Political Affairs and Security Policy Division at NATO Headquarters Alberto Bin spoke about the importance of integrity programs in defense budgeting and procurement for Ukraine, which has been facing, in fact, Russian aggression.

“We very much welcomed the opportunity to organize this event in Kyiv. Ukraine is involved in NATO’s Building Integrity Program, which includes of course a series of steps, starting with self-assessment of the situation, of integrity in Ukraine, which is provided by the Ukrainian authorities themselves based on a questionnaire that we have developed. Based on the self-assessment, we then enter the phase of series of peer reviews, which are based on the participation of experts from different countries to look at the possibility of improving the situation.

“So, the final result was a report which was published on the website of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council just a few months ago, which we consider a very positive step, because at least it shows the commitment of this Council to promotion of transparency. Then, of course, now it is a question of implementing the recommendations that we provided to our Ukrainian colleagues, and that is part of this process. We now think in terms of an integrity plan, which should be developed by the Ukrainian side. This workshop is among other things actually focusing on how to develop an integrity plan. So, I would say that this workshop is part of a process, it is something that we agreed together with our Ukrainian colleagues, and we look forward, of course, to the implementation of recommendations which possibly would lead to measures that would help to prevent corruption.”

You have had a kind of conference on integrity in military budget on Serbia, Montenegro, and other Balkan countries. What are the results of this conference?

“Indeed, this is the 6th workshop of the series, which will end at the end of the year, with one final workshop looking at the involvement of senior leadership. We have indeed organized several workshops in different places, you mentioned Montenegro, Serbia. And every time we focus on one specific issue, in some cases it relates to procurement of equipment, in some other cases, the management of financial resources, in some other cases, recruitment of personnel. In all those workshops we have been discussing various aspects of fighting corruption, and also we have learned from national experiences. In other words, lessons learned from actual experiences from different countries. De facto putting together different countries can help Ukraine and others to learn from each other. So, the idea is to build on those experiences, and that is why this workshop is to a certain extent the end of a process in a sense that we are now discussing the development of an integrity plan based on the recommendations, discussions, and views that have been exchanged in the previous workshops in different areas. So, this is a culmination of a process, I would say.”

Could you make a specific recommendation that was taken as a lesson from those workshops?

“First of all, one of the most important recommendations is to establish, for instance, an internal audit, which would help particularly in terms of financial management, but also personnel recruitment, and so on, and so forth. That is one important thing. The second one is to publicize the results of investigations, or even report recommendations, which the NSDC is kind of already taking care of. As I mentioned, they did publish the report on their website very recently.

“Another recommendation is to set up working groups that can look at the specific aspects of preventing corruption. And most importantly, to educate people that can entrain the other people to implement those recommendations. We call it ‘train the trainers.’ So, education is fundamental in this respect. We do provide recommendations, we do include all those recommendations in training curriculum. Those curricula would then need to be adapted and used by the authorities in this country or other countries, depending on target countries, in order to train their own trainers. And then it is up to them to work and move this thing forward. We can help, as NATO, and with our implementing partners, but we certainly cannot implement recommendations ourselves. So, it is entirely up to the countries to take over.”

Why is it focused only on partner countries, not allies?

“The NATO Building Integrity Program is open to both partners and allies. Corruption does not know borders, as you know. We have a number of ally countries we have been involved and have actually decided to engage in this process. I will just mention a few: Norway, Hungary, Bulgaria, just to give you a sense of countries which are already involved in this process. Bulgaria, for instance, is one of the countries which have been very active in terms of promoting this process. So, it is not just for partner countries, it certainly is not only for Ukraine, we have plenty of other countries which are in some kind of a difficult situation. We have plenty of countries within the Alliance that are considering the possibility of engaging in this process. So, it is not only for partners, it is something which is open also to allies.”

Compared to Bulgaria, supposedly the EU’s most corrupt country, Norway could not be expected to develop a problem like this…

“It is a choice of each single country. We are not making any decisions on their behalf. It was a decision of the Norwegian government to start this process. They may or may not need it – that’s a different story, but they feel they need it, because they also have some cases of corruption, they made it clear to us. So, it shows that despite the fact that they are quite advanced when it comes to fighting corruption or to preventing corruption rather in this case, they also feel that they need to get into this process, which shows that this process is very much value-added, even for those who are already quite advanced.

“Latvia has also been involved in this process. We understand that there are some big allies that are also considering this process for their own countries. So, in other words, this is a useful process that can apply to each country and it is tailored to their specific needs. So, there is no ‘one size fits all’ kind of thing, each country can decide on how to move forwards on this process. Of course, there are certain steps to be taken, as I mentioned, self-assessment, first of all, peer reviews, accepting the idea that experts from different countries can come to your own country and tell you that you are wrong. That is not easy to accept, but there are some countries, which have been happy to accept this, Ukraine is one of them. We look forward to an implementation of those recommendations, including Ukraine.”

What is your impression of the urgent needs in Ukraine: do we need effective spending on the arms?

“First of all, I would say that the fact that we are sitting here, running this workshop, just in front of the parliament, on the day when they have this extraordinary session discussing measures to fight corruption, it may be a coincidence, but of course, it is a very welcome coincidence to a certain extent. We very much appreciate the fact that things seem to be going the right direction, we appreciate that there are these developments.

“And that is why we provided a number of recommendations, that work has still to be done in terms of, for instance, equipment procurement, financial management, human resource management – all those things which are clearly important if you want to ensure rule of law, but also transparency, accountability, and integrity not only in the defense and security sector, which is clearly our main focus right now, but I would say overall throughout the country and throughout institutions. The fundamental issue here is that corruption undermines faith in the institutions and the government. That leads to instability. And that instability domestically can also have impact on other issues.

“Therefore, when we talk about, for instance, equipment procurement, when we talk about corruption in defense and security sector, this automatically affects also the Armed Forces, which in the case of Ukraine are actively engaged in defending their own country. So, we see a link, and any effort by the Ukrainian authorities to improve the situation, based on our recommendation, based on recommendation by other international organizations, by other international actors, is very welcome, because we believe that in the end, the Ukrainian people will have to gain from that, including the Armed Forces, which are currently involved in the crisis in eastern Ukraine.”

Mr. Bin, you were one of the authors of the book Desert Storm: A Forgotten War. Do you see any connection with that war and what happens now in the region, I mean ISIL?

“That goes back to the 1990s, so, a long time ago it was a book that I wrote together with two other colleagues, and it was primarily meant to take a fresh look at the Operation Desert Storm in the context of what used to be Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Clearly, this is something like 15-20 years old, it will probably require some revision, but it was our attempt to provide a sort of a fresh look at that particular conflict.

“I think there is no connection between what was mentioned in that book and the current situation there. I can only say that from a NATO perspective, we are very much concerned with the situation in the Levant and the emergence of ISIL. It was also mentioned at the recent Wales Summit, so we monitor the situation closely. We do understand that the number of allies is involved in a specific operation, which includes also partners from the Middle East. NATO as such is not directly involved, but of course, we do monitor the situation very closely. We are very much concerned with the situation there.”

But if you differentiate ISIL and Russian aggression, do you see the West acting adequately on those two threats?

“In terms of the crisis between Russia and Ukraine, I think there has been sent a sufficient signal from the NATO side that we are very much concerned with the situation there. NATO has taken a number of very substantial steps in order to show our concern about the situation. We are very much interested in making sure that the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine are maintained. So, in that sense, I think the number of measures that are being taken by NATO particularly, as a result of the Wales Summit, shows our determination to make sure that peace and stability are maintained throughout the Euro-Atlantic area, including in this region.”