On 22 October 2026, the World Customs Organization (WCO) said that since May 2024 it had supported the State Customs Service of Ukraine (SCSU) in strengthening integrity and identifying vulnerabilities to corruption in Customs procedures.
In October 2026, Customs officers from four (4) Ukrainian cities worked together to map key work processes, assess corruption risks and apply practical risk management tools.
The workshop combined conceptual presentations, practical exercises, and a field visit to a key Customs land border crossing point.
In October 2026, the WCO, through the Anti-Corruption and Integrity Promotion (A-CIP) Programme, organised a workshop that brought together Ukrainian Customs officers from Lviv, Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa regions to examine vulnerabilities in Customs processes and identify opportunities to prevent corruption. Participants used practical tools such as process maps and risk registers. Inspired by a study visit to the Hamburg Customs Office in Germany and supported by experts from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and Swedish Customs, the activity showed how international cooperation can spark ideas and enable concrete steps toward building accountable, effective and trusted Customs administrations.
Identifying risks before they become problems
Building capacity to manage corruption risks is essential to any strategy aimed at strengthening integrity in Customs. This requires systematically identifying vulnerabilities in procedures and work environments so preventive actions can be taken and internal controls improved.
During the four-day workshop, participants from SCSU’s risk management and corruption prevention departments mapped processes. They developed corruption risk registers, two essential activities that help administrations understand how processes operate and identify where corruption risks may arise.
Discussions were also held on how to connect identified risks with practical prevention measures. Rather than treating corruption risks as isolated issues, participants examined how to recognise them within operational processes and address them through appropriate management measures, drawing on the WCO Revised Arusha Declaration on Good Governance and Integrity in Customs.
Connecting anti-corruption measures with operational reality
The workshop also gave officers from different regions and technical areas of SCSU an opportunity to exchange experiences, compare challenges, and discuss approaches that could be applied across the SCSU. This resulted in a more consistent understanding of integrity risks while taking into account perspectives from different operational areas of the administration.
A visit to the Krakovets Border Customs Point (BCP) in the Lviv region allowed participants to compare what they had learned with the situation on the ground. Participants observed the various processes managed by both people and IT systems across the BCP’s different functional areas. They applied their new knowledge to review inbound and outbound traffic through an integrity lens, identified specific vulnerabilities, and later discussed them and added them to localised risk registers.
The WCO experts also met with the head of the Lviv regional Customs office to discuss operational challenges and managers’ role in strengthening integrity and addressing corruption vulnerabilities.
Peer-to-peer learning
The WCO plays an important role in facilitating experience exchange among its members on practical approaches to corruption prevention. The Ukrainian participants in the workshop drew on examples of process maps provided after a study visit to German Customs earlier in the year, as well as risk registers from the WCO Risk Management Compendium.
Discussions on connecting risks with practical prevention measures were enhanced by the contributions of an expert from the CBSA, who joined the activities in Lviv, and an expert from Swedish Customs, who contributed online. Their involvement brought additional perspectives, as both had worked on integrity issues in their home administrations and abroad.
By combining their expertise with the knowledge and experience of Ukrainian Customs officers, the workshop supported adopting a practical, comprehensive approach to corruption risk management in Ukraine.
What is next
At the local level, participants will share lessons learned on process mapping, risk mapping and assessment, and maintaining risk registers with colleagues in regional offices. They will continue to identify corruption risks in key operational processes proactively.
At the national level, the SCSU is updating the Corruption Risk Assessment using the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) methodology and incorporating insights from operational levels, with support from the WCO A-CIP Programme.
More Information: About the A-CIP Programme
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- From insight to impact: how Ukraine used a data-driven approach to strengthen integrity.
- Ukraine takes its first look at results from the Customs Integrity Perception Survey (CIPS) under the WCO A-CIP Programme.
- State Customs Service of Ukraine advancing its anti-corruption efforts with the WCO A-CIP Programme.
- WCO A-CIP Programme kicks off its partnership with the State Customs Service of Ukraine.