Ukraine Country Profile

Police

Individual Corruption

The population ranks the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies (police, tax police, Prosecutor's Office) that are responsible for fighting corruption as among the most corrupt institutions in the country. The traffic police, in particular, are perceived as an extremely corrupt institution. For instance, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology survey Cost of Corruption for Ukrainian Households and the Kharkov Institute of Social Research survey Corruption in Traffic Patrol conducted in 2007, bribes to traffic police are a given, and, in addition, over half of the surveyed respondents believed that the amount of bribes to traffic police remained unchanged, as reported in a 2008 article by Kyiv Post.

The US Department of State 2009 reports that, according to the Interior Ministry, over 39,000 law-enforcement officers were subjected to administrative disciplinary actions in the first nine months of 2009. Of these, criminal investigations were begun against 115 officers on bribery charges. Moreover, 310 police officers and 13 prosecutors were found criminally liable for corruption in the first nine months of 2009.

Business Corruption

According to the Atlantic Council of the United States 2007, numerous Ukrainian companies have been subjected to 'corporate raids'. In this practice, a company is infiltrated by agents of 'raiders' who gather information about the company and purchase a small share of its stock. Then a lawsuit is filed with a lower level court in a remote local jurisdiction. The court then issues an injunction, which is used by a pseudo security company to take possession of the company properties. Police are bribed to allow the security company to retain control over the raided company. They then try to sell the property and buy it themselves or to sell it to those ordering the raid. They then change the composition of the company charter. This scheme is able to continue because of the lack of punishment for persons engaging in such schemes. According to the US Department of State 2008, it is reported that these corporate raids have led to the illegal seizure of as many as 2,500 companies over the previous several years.

Political Corruption

The traffic police (DAI) are known to form one of the most corrupt institutions in Ukraine. The institution was dissolved and restructured into two separate entities in 2005. According to the Ukrainian weekly Zerkalo Nedeli, it is questionable whether the restructuring has led to fewer bribes being paid on Ukrainian roads. In November 2007, former President Yushchenko lashed out at the DAI for extorting bribes from motorists for minor offences. He criticised mid-level police officers for pressuring street officers to take bribes and for taking a cut of the bribes themselves. In a similar vein, a 2008 article by ITAR-TASS reports that Yushchenko accused the bodies of state power, particularly law enforcement bodies, in April 2008 of being the sphere in which corruption occurs most frequently.

The GRECO Compliance Report on Ukraine 2009 recommends that the authorities focus more on the development of specialised permanent training curricula on detection and investigation of corruption for the police staff concerned. In line with this recommendation, and within the framework of the Project Against Corruption in Ukraine (UPAC), a training seminar on Detection and Investigation of Corruption Offences was organised for up to 100 police officers from Kyiv and other regions in March 2009, according to the GRECO website.

Frequency

World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010:
- Business executives give the reliability of Ukrainian police services to enforce law and order a score of 3.2 on a 7-point scale (1 being 'cannot be relied upon at all' and 7 'can always be relied upon').

Transparency International: Global Corruption Barometer 2009:
- 41% of households who had contact with the police in 2008 report having paid a bribe.

The World Bank & IFC: Enterprise Surveys 2008:
- Over 43% of companies surveyed identify crime, theft and disorder as a major constraint on doing business.

MSI & KIIS: Corruption in Ukraine 2007:
- The traffic police (DAI) was regarded as widely corrupt by 57% of the respondents in this household survey.

- 39% of the respondents who had interacted with the DAI, stated that they were required to pay bribes when violating traffic rules, and 25% gave the money voluntarily.

- Only 32% did not pay the bribe or refused to be extorted.

- 54% perceived the police as a whole to be widely corrupt.

EBRD & World Bank: BEEPS Ukraine 2005:
- Companies report that they were inspected by the municipal police an average of 1.2 times per year, the average duration of these inspections lasting approximately 45 minutes.