Key Quote
“For democracy to thrive, citizens must have trust in democratic governments: governments that they feel are truly accountable to them…The best way to do so is by continuing to weave technological innovations like ProZorro into the fabric of government.”
Like so many Ukrainians, Olexandr Starodubtsev found that his whole life changed during his country’s Revolution of Dignity, a democratic uprising that toppled Ukraine’s Russian-backed autocratic president in 2014. Before the revolution, Starodubtsev was a business school graduate working in the financial markets. When it began, he felt inspired to support the protestors demanding democratic reform and government accountability. Together with friends, he established the Open University of Maidan, an educational initiative that provided outdoor public lectures—often in freezing-cold winter temperatures—on topics ranging from constitutionalism and the legislative process to free speech and market economics. After the revolution succeeded, Starodubtsev, then in his mid-30s, joined the new Ukrainian government as head of public procurement regulation at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. Today, he serves as deputy chief of staff at Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention.
A strong believer in the power of technology to fuel democratic progress, Starodubtsev is best known as the co-founder of Ukraine’s Prozorro public procurement system. Developed in concert with Transparency International, Prozorro (which means “transparency” in Ukrainian) was the first fully online public procurement system designed to fight corruption when it launched in 2015. It became mandatory the following year for all entities seeking Ukrainian government contracts. By marrying digital platforms with robust oversight and competition, Prozorro has delivered billions of dollars in savings for Ukrainian taxpayers already, while—most importantly for Starodubtsev—boosting public trust in government.
“The public contracting process is one that is riddled with corruption in many countries, and this was certainly true in Ukraine,” Starodubtsev explains. “But now citizens can go online and see for themselves where their tax dollars are going. This advances two vital and mutually reinforcing ingredients for democracy at the same time: accountability and trust.”
Prozorro is an innovative hybrid public-private open-source system developed based on a unique, trust-based collaboration model. It is guided by principles jointly agreed by three key stakeholders—government, businesses, and civil society—which fosters high levels of trust by taking the interests of each into account. The system’s open source approach and transparent certification requirements enable private companies to compete with one another, motivating each to provide better service to the government and suppliers. Meanwhile, civil society organizations can examine how effectively taxpayer dollars are being spent while government officials can realize budgetary savings along the way. “Prozorro,” as one U.S. State Department official described the system, “is testimony to what can be achieved through collaboration among civil society, private enterprise, the government of Ukraine, and donors.” Not surprisingly, Prozorro has been recognized by a wide range of international organizations.
Russia’s military invasion created unprecedented hardship for all Ukrainian government programs, and Prozorro is no exception. Yet, despite the profound challenge of operating amidst bombings and evacuations, Prozorro continues to keep Ukraine’s public procurement process running smoothly. “It’s still working despite the war,” Starodubtsev says proudly. Moreover, the Prozorro team has spearheaded a global campaign to help promote similar anti-corruption solutions in other nations. “By defining a common data model and enabling data disclosure at every stage of a contracting process, other nations can increase transparency in their contracting processes too—and allow for deeper analysis of that data by more users.”
All this gets to a larger theme for Starodubtsev: the connection between more digital technology and better government.
“Technology can help civil servants reduce red tape, overcome resource limitations, and conquer bureaucratic inertia, among so many other things,” Starodubtsev says. He believes all governments should teach civil servants how to use technology to make their organizations work better. In his view, using systems like Prozorro to simplify and automate business processes throughout government can help every official do their job more productively. “It makes all these government officials—and politicians especially—a lot more accountable to the people”
And, as mentioned earlier, accountability and trust are important to him.
After launching Prozorro at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, Starodubtsev participated in a yearlong fellowship at Stanford University as part of the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program. During the fellowship, he developed a belief that “the main tools to keep democracy alive are accountability and trust.” That is why, upon his return to Ukraine in 2018, Starodubtsev devoted himself to civil service reform while maintaining a keen focus on technology. Now, in his current role at the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, Starodubtsev helps oversee another program—a technology platform designed to enforce sanctions against Russia while monitoring Ukrainian government officials for evidence of bribery or malfeasance. “We truly believe that all the people of Ukraine should be able to easily look at, understand, assess, and compare all the assets that civil servants own,” he says. “Otherwise, the elite won’t be accountable, and sooner or later trust in democracy will fall.”
Even as his homeland endures its biggest challenge since gaining independence in 1991, Starodubtsev remains bullish on Ukraine’s prospects in a more digital age. “None of us actually believed that such a war would happen,” says Starodubtsev. Yet, as the fighting drags on, he considers information technology just as important to the Ukrainian side as sanctions or military equipment. “This is a war of the modern world, humanism, and democracy against barbarians of the 19th century. So we should work with tools from the 21st century to achieve victory—and not just on the traditional battlefield but on the digital battlefield as well.”
Starodubtsev sees Ukraine’s struggle as part of a larger fight for democracy around the world, and himself as a soldier on the ramparts. He does not fight with guns or knives, but with the digital tools that enable innovations like Prozorro to make a difference in how citizens view and interact with their government. And, in many ways, this is the front line of the conflict: the hearts and minds of citizens. “For democracy to thrive, citizens must have trust in democratic governments: governments that they feel are truly accountable to them,” Starodubtsev concludes. “The best way to do so is by continuing to weave technological innovations like Prozorro into the fabric of government.”
Key Takeaways
- Starodubtsev is best known as the co-founder of Ukraine’s ProZorro public procurement system. Developed in concert with Transparency International, ProZorro (which means “transparency” in Ukrainian) was the first fully online public procurement system designed to fight corruption when it launched in 2015.
- ProZorro is an innovative hybrid public-private open-source system developed based on a unique, trust-based collaboration model. It is guided by principles jointly agreed by three key stakeholders—government, businesses, and civil society—which fosters high levels of trust by taking the interests of each into account.
- Starodubtsev sees Ukraine’s struggle as part of a larger fight for democracy around the world, and himself as a soldier on the ramparts. He does not fight with guns or knives but with the digital tools that enable innovations like ProZorro to make a difference in how citizens view and interact with their government. And, in many ways, this is the front line of the conflict: the hearts of minds of citizens.
