Private companies will have the opportunity to compete for a business integrity award, which will be awarded for the first time ever within the current year’s edition of the “Trademark of the Year” contest, launched today during a press conference. The initiative belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in partnership with the National Anticorruption Center (NAC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The award of this prize encourages the implementation of integrity standards in companies.

“Applying integrity standards and effective corruption prevention mechanisms is more efficient and less costly than combatting corruption consequences. This is valid for both: private sector and public sector. Hence, besides the punitive measures applied by state institutions to prevent corruption, it is also important to promote and encourage integrity conduct”, mentioned Olga Crivoliubic, UNDP Moldova Project Manager.

The applications to be submitted by candidates to take part in the contest for business integrity award should contain evidence of implementation of mechanisms for promoting integrity and anticorruption standards in business. Hence, companies will present their own Code of Ethics and Conduct in Business, the procedures for reporting irregularities at the work place and those for solving conflicts of interests, the mechanisms for protecting integrity whistleblowers, the procedures for declaring and assessing the gifts, as well as internal control procedures.

Big, small and medium businesses may participate in the contest, except for State and Municipality Enterprises, Joint Stock Companies in which the State holds the majority of shares and which are public entities.

The participants admitted for business integrity prize nominalization will be exempted from paying the participation fee, which will be covered by UNDP Moldova under the “Curbing Corruption and Building Sustainable Integrity in the Republic of Moldova” Project. The applications for the contest may be submitted starting April 01, 2020 to the address of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. For more details please visit the official page of the institution: www.chamber.md

The “Trademark of the Year” contest has been organized since 2003 by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Moldova (CCI) in partnership with the State Agency on Intellectual Property of the Republic of Moldova (AGEPI).

Alongside the business integrity prize, the “Trademark of the Year” has other 11 nominations including “Reputation and Trust”, “Woman in Business”, “Leader of the Year”, “Export”, “Starter of the Year” etc.

The “Curbing Corruption and Building Sustainable Integrity in the Republic of Moldova” Project, implemented by UNDP with the financial support of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs aims to develop a sustainable integrity and anticorruption system within public and private entities, as well as in the associative sector. The project is carried out during 2019-2021.