Anti-Corruption Conference for International Anti-Corruption Day

PCU’s School of Business held a special conference in Prague to support the UN’s International Anti-Corruption Day. The conference brought together both academics and professionals with the shared goal of combating corruption within businesses and governments.

Presentations from Academics and Professionals

Held at the Institute of Czech Literature of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the conference was both live-streamed and held in person, allowing participants from across Europe to take part.

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Split into two distinct sections: an academic section and a professional section. The academic section featured top researchers in the field such as Dr. Victoria Bozhenko from Tubingen University and Sumy State University and Dr Tena Prelec from the University of Oxford and University of Rijeka, who shared their latest research findings and developments. Valuable contributions were also made by Teesside University International Business School and the University’s School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Law. Meanwhile, the professional section provided insight from experienced professionals who offered valuable advice and best practice for attendees to take away and apply in their own work.

The full conference programme including speaker profiles and abstracts can be downloaded here.

Dr. Victoria Bozhenko added that, "the AntiCorruption Conference was a great initiative of Prague City University for promoting the exchanging of ideas between the business community, academics and practitioners. This dialogue gave us additional insights into the necessity of establishing good governance to help prevent fraud and corruption."

Highlights

The Deputy Mayor of Prague City Council, Pavel Vyhnánek, gave a presentation on the prevalence of corruption in Prague and its associated patterns and mechanisms. This was followed by a presentation from Jiří Michal, an alumni of Prague City University who works in Corporate Finance Advisory at UniCredit Bank. His talk focused on anti-corruption measures in international banking.

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This was followed by a lively panel chaired by Dr. Bruce Gahir from PCU’s School of Business and included, Roberto Di Cursi from Luca Prague s.r.o., Marcela Laššáková from Swixx Biopharma and Markéta Kořínková from Bříza & Trubač.

After participating the the panel Markéta shared that she found, "the variety of invited guests was unique and great that voices from academia, public and corporate spheres were able to meet in the one place to discuss such an important topic."

Reception

Feedback from attendees, both online and in person, found the conference to be incredibly informative and beneficial.

Danny Singh, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Teesside University, UK, presented "Identifying the Causes of Police Corruption and Prevention Strategies in Hostile States’ and said of the event. "The conference was coherently structured and provided a range of speakers from the financial and banking sector to academia. This achieved diverse presentations and useful discussion panels on how anti-corruption can combat corruption that plagues the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. A range of misbehaviour recurred as the main themes, comprising: grand corruption, fraud, embezzlement, administrative corruption, rent-seeking (contracts) and state capture."

Student Impressions and Involvement

PCU encourages students to attend events for the purpose of gaining valuable insight and networking opportunities, as well as taking part in activities and contributing. As soon-to-be graduates, it is important that students prioritize the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targeted for 2030, so as professionals they can take ownership and work towards achieving them in order to create a better future for all.

Arulan Reddy, a student from BA (Hons) International Finance & Business Accounting shared that, "the conference was fantastically structured with industry experts that provided great insight into Anti-Corruption measures to advance sustainable development and I found it absolutely fascinating to have an opportunity to network."

While Shamilah Babkova, a student from the same programme added that, "the conference had excellent speakers and was a great opportunity for students to gain insight and the perspective of qualified professionals working in their respective fields."

Model UN Style Debate

With student participation in mind, Hon. Prof Stefano Cavagnetto, Dean of PCU’s School of Business encouraged students to collaborate with the Student Council in order to create presentations and a debate regarding Anti-Corruption and the SDGs, based on the UN model.

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Students Yaniv Friedman, Daryna Vykhrystenko, Alisa Radchenko, Oleksandra Khabuzova, Luka Makharashvili, Dren Thaçi, Artem Fortelnyi, Alexander Kotsch and Layla Ben-Moshe took part. Split into three teams, each had a representative student present to the audience and the teams debated and questioned each presentation. The student’s presentation, research and performances were assessed by the academics and professionals in attendance, with Yaniv Friedman, Daryna Vykhrystenko and Alisa Radchenko judged the winners.

Future Plans

PCU is delighted by the success of its recent conference and the overwhelmingly positive feedback it received. Consequently, PCU intends to host future conferences with a similar focus. These conferences will provide attendees with the opportunity to learn from academic and working professionals who are experts in their field, as well as network with like-minded professionals and develop further research opportunities and projects. PCU is confident that these conferences will be just as successful as the first one and that attendees, including students, will leave feeling inspired and empowered.

The full conference programme including speaker profiles and abstracts can be downloaded here. An edited video of the conference will also be available in the new year. If you are interested in receiving a copy please email Hon. Prof Stefano Cavagnetto.

With thanks to our sponsors Teesside University International Business School, Bříza & Trubač and Luca Prague s.r.o.