Photo from UNIAN
At the same time, he noted as another key issue embezzlement of funds allocated by foreign donors for the construction of new checkpoints.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Honcharuk said that smuggling never stopped, therefore he promised to change chiefs of customs offices in all of Ukraine's regions.
In his video blog, Honcharuk said that he had met with the American Chamber of Commerce representatives and heard that businesses see one of the main problems in the country in smuggling. In this regard, the head of government, together with the head of the Customs Service, Maksym Nefyodov, visited to one of the most problematic areas in terms of smuggling, Chernivtsi.
"There is a very interesting situation. Of course, they were well prepared for our visit. Everything is nice, there are no lines, drivers are satisfied, we're seeing an almost working scanner, and so on and so forth. Of course, this show-off didn't impress us. We understand that smuggling never stopped there. All those reports on the confiscation of hundreds of pairs of slippers and dozens of champagne bottles as a demonstration of their mad fight against smuggling didn't impress us either. We will do everything as quickly as possible so that the customs chiefs across regions change," Honcharuk said.
He also noted that the premises of the Customs Service in Chernivtsi are still rented from an individual, whom experts say is affiliated with one of the local "clans" engaged in smuggling.
"I instructed to quickly find premises where customs offices could be located in this area, and I turned to the prosecutor general with a proposal to dismiss the local prosecutor. Under a decent prosecutor, systemic smuggling cannot be flourishing for two years, but this is not the only issue, "said Honcharuk.
He called border crossing points, which never opened another problem in the area, while funds for their construction were being "systemically siphoned".
“Therefore, all these bugs we will definitely have to fix ... By the end of the year, we will clearly know what needs to be done so that the infrastructure at our border allows us to put smuggling to a halt," the prime minister said, adding that he had instructed the head of the Customs Service within two weeks to prepare a strategy for the development of the entire customs infrastructure and put into operation previously purchased cargo scanners.
As UNIAN reported earlier, PM Honcharuk gave customs officials a month to fix the situation with smuggling, and also called on law enforcement agencies to either stop "covering up" for smuggling schemes" or vacate their posts.
UNIAN memo. In February 2018, the European Union closed down the project to modernize six border checkpoints with Ukraine, launched in 2014, due to a number of delays, errors and cost overruns involving local officials and contractors.
By the end of 2017, none of the six draft checkpoints had been completed, although the EU provided funding worth EUR 29.2 million.
New Customs chief Maksym Nefyodov, said that the first pair of cargo scanners purchased to combat smuggling would be put into operation in early 2020.
At the same time, it was expected that seven such scanners would be purchased, but only four of them were, while none of them is operable now. Nefyodov noted that part of the scanners were installed in a way not to ever allow their normal operation.
In a followup of these statements, the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) launched a pre-trial probe into the installation of idle scanners, suspecting certain customs officers of inflicting damage to the state budget.