Nine private companies were awarded by UNDP and the National Anticorruption Centre (NAC) for implementing integrity standards in business during the 2021 edition of the “Trademark of the Year” Contest, organized by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The competition for this nomination was conducted for the second consecutive year with the aim to support the implementation of integrity standards by private companies, and to promote good practices in this area.

Under the “Big enterprises” category, Orange, Moldcell, Kaufland and Metro were awarded. In the case of medium enterprises – the award was offered to Coca-Cola company, and the awarded companies in “Small enterprises” category were Rozmarin Cafe, Edujoc, RapidAsig and Expres-Test-Auto.

The winners were selected from a bigger number of participants who have undergone several stages of the contest. They had to demonstrate that during 2020 they have implemented mechanisms for promoting integrity and anticorruption standards in their businesses. The companies submitted to the jury their codes of ethics and conduct in business, procedures for reporting irregularities at the workplace and for solving conflicts of interest, the mechanism for protection of integrity whistleblowers, as well as procedures for internal control, declaration and evaluation of gifts.

Dima Al-Khatib, UNDP Resident Representative to the Republic of Moldova, mentioned during the winners’ awarding ceremony: “The Business Integrity Award relies on the shift of the integrity policies from a narrow focus of deterrence of corruption towards promoting integrity climate and highlighting success stories of building an honest business and thus motivate companies to implement integrity standards, develop fair and just business environment.”

Ion Pruteanu, Head of Division at the National Anticorruption Center, noted: “The 16 competitors who applied for this nomination proved that they want to develop profitable, but also honest, transparent and fair businesses. This nomination supports ethical companies to enhance the integrity component in the private sector, to contribute to developing a business environment that would be based on fairness, competition, integrity standards, transparency, and professionalism in the interaction with public sector”.

The participants at the nomination for implementing integrity standards in business were exempted from paying the participation fee, which was covered by UNDP Moldova through “Curbing corruption and building sustainable integrity in the Republic of Moldova” project.

During the 2020 edition of the contest, six private companies from the Republic of Moldova were awarded the prize for implementing integrity standards in business. Other six companies received honorary diplomas.

The “Trademark of the Year” Contest has been conducted since 2003 and is organized 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). Besides the integrity award, the “Trademark of the Year” contest implies other 11 nominalizations, among which “Reputation and Confidence”, “Woman in Business”, “Leader of the Year”, “Export”, “Debut of the Year” etc.

According to the National Integrity and Anti-corruption Strategy Impact Monitoring Survey, commissioned by UNDP Moldova in 2019, integrity in private sector was highly appreciated, as compared to other sectors. At the same time, the survey revealed a high level of population’s intolerance for corruption, being considered by 62% of surveyed population and 83% of companies as inacceptable. This shows a high demand for anticorruption efforts from the population and business community.

The “Curbing corruption and building sustainable integrity in the Republic of Moldova” project, supporting the business integrity award, is implemented by UNDP Moldova with the support of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and aims to create a sustainable integrity and anticorruption system within public and private sector entities and association sector. The project is carried out during 2019-2021.