The European Pro Bono Week 2020 is over in Kyiv; during this time the best lawyers of the country have advised free of charge representatives of public organizations. The topic of the final on-line meeting was the Code of Ethics in a Public Organization.
During the webinar, senior lawyer of the world’s international law firm Dentons Kyiv Office, Head of the task force on counteraction to corruption of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine Ihor Svitlyk told what this document is required for and how to make it persistently enforceable by both your employees and partners. The Ukrainian Legal Aid Foundation has made brief notes of his lecture.
The problem of corruption
In Ukraine we all realise the significance of counteraction to those unethical practices that we still have. Ihor Svitlyk sets his great hopes on the NABU (National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine) and anti-corruption, however, until this system works the way like it does in the European countries, in his opinion, we should begin from the the lower strata. In the expert’s opinion, business companies and public organizations must self-arrange and transfer to running business or activities in ethical way.
“The more organizations introduce the Code of Ethics into their activities, the bigger will be snowball effect which will ultimately sweep away all unethical practices that are the case of today in Ukraine”, he indicates.
Why this must work out? In Denmark, which today takes the first place in anti-corruption rankings, it began with adoption of the Code of Ethics by public organizations and business companies, and the state joined in the process just later on. The speaker says that it is better when a public organization understands how the Code of Ethics important is and how it can help its stable operation and development. If the impulse is external, this document should be adopted not only formally to satisfy a grantor or partner but to explore this idea deeply for yourself.
Development of the Code of Ethics
Head of the task force on counteraction to corruption advises to involve every employee in the first stage of the Code’s development. If you just take a template, re-write it with lawyers and hand it down, your employees will hardly accept it, especially at the beginning. Whereas a document is developed by a team, everyone feels their involvement and shares responsibility for its implementation.
You can find a lot of sound templates of the Code of Ethics on the Internet and take them as a basis. As a n example, the expert gave the UNIC’s Code of Conduct and Ethics. Just do not copy everything thoughtlessly; you should understand how each provision will be translated in practice in your organization.
At the discussion stage you should consider all those corruption risks to be encountered by your organization. For example, it can be clearly provided for that financial transactions shall to be effected exclusively by cashless payment, and all employees, including top managers, are prohibited from something received as a present or gift. However, if making presents to officials and partners is traditional in your company, this issue should be worked out in more details. Ascertain what will be ethical and what will not.
Role of the manager
It is extremely important that the manager themselves initiates development of the Code and later on complies with all its provisions; otherwise, employees will highly likely not fulfil anything. Moreover, should regular violation of ethics be contrary to the internal principals of an employee, motivation will be lost with time and, most likely, result in dismissal. According to the expert, the companies that have no Code of Ethics or the same is not complied with, usually suffer from huge employee turnover.
Person in charge
According to the senior lawyer, upon approval of this document a person in charge of fulfilment of the Code of Ethics should be assigned. Not necessary that this person will deal only with the Code’s issues, he or she may be your lawyer or an employee of the Finance Department. The thing is that people would understand where to call or write to if they know or guess of violation of ethical norms. Another option is a box placed in the office in which anyone can put their anonymous notes. While important is to explain to the employees that they make no complaints against anyone but try in this way to make the company better and, in some cases, prevent its collapse.
Let’s remind of other lectures being given during European Pro Bono Week 2020 in Kyiv:
- External Audit of Public Organizations. Founder of an auditing company Oleksandr Marinchenko gave some practical advice as to how to increase a chance to obtain a grant from donors and where to search for auditors for the projects.
- Legal proceeding: what a public organization should be prepared for when going to court? Maryna Opirska, lawyer of the international law firm DLA Piper Ukraine, told about typical mistakes done when preparing for case proceedings.
- Employment relationship in a public organization. Oleksandra Piskun, lawyer in Kyiv office of Dentos, the largest international law firm, shared her experience in proper registration of employment relationship in a pandemic when employees work from home or in office.
- Agreements of a public organization. Zoya Krasiuk, partner of Spensers law firm, explained what points to look out for when you draw up contracts, how to indemnify volunteers for their expenses and execute cooperation with individual entrepreneurs to avoid possible risks.
For information:
The First European Pro Bono Week was held in November 2019 in over 10 cities including Paris, Madrid, Milan, Frankfurt, and Brussels. Its organizers in Kyiv were MO PILnet backed by the Ukrainian Legal Aid Foundation and Pro Bono Lab Program of the Ukrainian School of Practical Knowledge.
Topic of current week is Pro bono in Response to Global Crisis. We should point out that experts of many law firms currently tend to help public organizations while they understand their social responsibility and importance of supporting each other in the Covid-19 pandemic.