To cross the Polish-Ukrainian border without waiting, drivers have to give a bribe of 50 to 500 hryvnias. This sensational information (many of our compatriots have already put up with and actively violate the law) was spread the other day by the Polish television channel TVN 24. The journalist managed to cross five out of six car entry points at the border giving bribes to the Ukrainian border guards. The most “expensive” entry point was “Zosin-Ustyluh” (the Volyn oblast) and the “cheapest” one was “Khrebetne-Rava Ruska” (the Lviv oblast). There the border guards take 100 hryvnias.
“The improvement of border crossing at the Ukrainian entry points before Euro-2012 is the officials’ slogan. Those who have tried to cross this border at least once react to the word ‘improvement’ with an ironic smile. To pass the border relatively quickly one has to pay,” the TV-channel emphasized in the special program “In Black and White,” quotes UNIAN.
However, the journalist got the evidence that this lucrative job also feeds civilians. It turned out that to speed up one’s way to the border people also have to pay. “They openly got on tourists’ cars. All of them cooperate and pass clients to each other. Thus, having paid “bandits” some money people approach to the entry bar… Regardless of the fact that everyone knows about it the Ukrainian border service pretends not to know anything,” TVN 24 commented.
This is one more spot on our name before Euro-2012. How much money should the Foreign Ministry spend to repair the damage of similar information? And will it cost anything if the systematic reforms are not carried out?
COMMENTARY
Volodymyr SHEREMET, head of the Public Relations Department at the Western Regional Office of the State Border Service of Ukraine:
“After this information was spread we immediately held a meeting with the heads of border detachments mentioned by the Polish journalists. During the meeting we saw the program by the television channel TVN 24. As a result, the head of the regional office and border detachments commanders instituted an internal inquiry. It will be held by the end of the week, after that we will come up with conclusions. The easiest punishment for the lawbreakers will be dismissal from the State Border Service. However, we, being a part of the law machinery, will have to initiate a criminal case against them. The measure of punishment will be defined according to the current legislation.
“The problem is that the video was filmed with the protection of public information and we could not see lawbreakers’ faces. It impedes the investigation that is why we agreed that the journalists will give us the work materials with those people in order to prove their guilt (we talked to the editor of the TV-channel TVN 24 on the phone).
“As for the civilians who break the law by taking people to the entry bar out of turn, this problem exists only at one entry point. The queue at the Ukrainian side appears because the Poles work unrythmically and civilians use it to cheat people. However, the point is that they break the law on the territory the border service is not responsible for. That is why to solve these problems we cooperate with the law machinery representatives. We even have the lists with lawbreakers’ names. Several times we have cooperated with the police, organized inspections and arrested those people. This time we did it again and some people were arrested. Now the question is to prove their guilt.
“The border service has a lot of structures to fight the corruption in the State Border Service of Ukraine. However, we can see that the Polish journalists found out that this is not enough. It should be emphasized that we, border guards, will not hush up the facts of corruption, will not hide them and will not protect the servicemen who break the law. If they are guilty they will be punished.”
