Income and Tax Ministry of Ukraine is not fighting smuggling and corruption effectively, and customs officers still take bribes, Deputy Income and Tax Minister of Ukraine for fighting corruption Mykhailo Noniak has said.
“As for the ministry, I think that it is not effective in fighting
smuggling and corruption. We’re trying to carry out certain work. I have
my own vision and my own approaches. If we speak about the department
for fighting smuggling, it is not effective today, and many businessmen
that are present here see extortion at customs checkpoints. They have
been reduced, but they’re still there,” he said at a meeting with
businessmen in Kyiv on Monday.
The deputy minister said he had brought his proposals on fighting
corruption and smuggling to the ministry. He said that now candidates
for new employees are being considered who would go there with a clear
conscience and who would be able to work for the good of the state and
not personal enrichment.
Deputy Income and Tax Minister for financial investigations Volodymyr
Khomenko said that the biggest corruption problems exist at Odesa
regional customs agency and Uzhgorod regional customs agency of the
Income and Tax Ministry of Ukraine.
“Today we have the problem with the customs service. Especially there
are questions for smuggling… If we take the main customs agencies –
Odesa, Uzhgorod and Lviv – there are many questions there. People are
expecting the Income and Tax Ministry to give orders that we will work
in the same way we worked before. I’m sure that none of us [four deputy
ministers] will never agree to that,” he said.
