Average Bribe in Ukraine—24,000

Thursday, 19 August 2010

The average bribe is almost 24,000 UAH.  

A UNIAN correspondent reports that Valeriy Koryak, Director of the Department of the State Service on Combating Economic Crimes under the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated this fact on Thursday during a briefing.  

The total sum of documented bribes amounted to over 27.7 million UAH.  

Overall 1123 individuals were exposed; of them 181 were service personnel employed by governmental bodies and administrations and over 220 were employed by regulatory agencies. 

Also, according to Mr. Koryak, 8 civil servants from central executive bodies were held criminally responsible for participating in acts of bribery, 4 officials in regional state administrations, 21 officials from district state administrations, 8 city leaders, and 17 officials in city and district councils, etc.   

From the beginning of the year in educational establishments of Ukraine 184 cases of bribery were uncovered.  According to Mr. Koryak, 74 individuals were found criminally responsible.  Among them 30 principles and assistant principles of educational establishments, 40 other education workers, and 4 students for giving bribes. 

Additionally, according from information provided by Mr. Koryak, 84 cases of bribery were substantiated in the healthcare system.   “In hospitals and clinics there is evidence of bribes being received in exchange for writing letters stating that an individual is not fit for work or providing documentation that an individual underwent a physical exam when in fact no exam was conducted.  Bribes are also given to secure treatment and medical supplies,” stated Mr. Koryak. 

He also announced that last year 1752 cases of financial crimes dealing with land issues were opened, mostly dealing with the illegal land use.  The majority of such crimes were found in the Crimea, Dnipropetrovs’k, Donetsk, Zakarpattya, Zaporizhzhya, Kyiv, Luhans’k, L’viv and Odesa regions and in the city of Kyiv. 

Mr. Koryak noted that a total of more than 1700 cases of bribery were documented. 

Officials exposed in bribery cases were noted to have higher ranks than in the past and the amount of individual bribes also increased.  The Department of the State Service on Combating Economic Crimes discovered 42 bribes valued at over 100,000 UAH each, 30 over 30,000UAH and 105 over 10,000 UAH. 

Ukrayins’ka Pravda