Corruption as a way of life

Donetsk oblast has been swept by a powerful wave of protests against corruption, although until recently local residents were indifferent to this social evil. Whereas before only 4 to 10 percent of the population of this coal-mining region was prepared to combat sleaze, now more than 33 percent of the residents of Donetsk oblast say they are eager to combat bribery even by themselves. Still, most of them are placing great hopes on a legal solution to the problem and expect that law-enforcement bodies will work effectively.

YOUTH = CORRUPTION?

According to Valentyna Demkina, head of the Donetsk Youth Debating Center, corruption-related statistics in the region reveal a new trend: the younger the Ukrainians, the more condescending their attitude to bribery, which they consider to be a “helping” factor. Experts say that young people today are ready to pay for any benefits, including ones that the law guarantees them free of charge. They do so because they are afraid of losing these benefits. This spurs young people to offer bribes, which they regard as an excellent way to advance and a solution to various problems.

Corruption is thus eroding the very things that are of the utmost importance to young people, such as education, health care, traffic police, draft boards, customs, etc.

Demkina notes that most of the young people with whom the debating center works say that most often they encounter corruption when they are enrolling in colleges and universities. The same applies to schools where pupils are constantly forced to give money to various school or class funds, donate money for school renovations, or buy gifts for teachers. As a result, about 24 percent of surveyed parents whose children attend state schools have participated, one way or another, in corrupt activities. Although there have been no recorded incidents in Donetsk of teachers extorting money for a child’s enrollment in a school, examination grades, or compulsory studies, parents claim they have to pay no matter what: if you want a gold or silver medal, in most cases you have to pay a bribe. University applicants face the same problem: 40 percent have to pay for a “free” admission or for good grades on entrance exams.

According to a nationwide survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in January-April 2007, the overall level of corruption in universities throughout Ukraine ranks fifth after corruption among traffic police, regular police, medical establishments, and courts. Oddly enough, citizens tolerate corruption in these sectors.

For example, people are willing to pay for various traffic police services: the survey shows that money is usually extorted for the issuance of drivers’ licenses, a lenient attitude on the part of driving instructors on the final drivers’ test, the return of confiscated driving licenses, technical inspections, as well as for drawing up the “right” traffic accident report. As a result, an estimated 64 percent of people are forced, one way or another, to pay bribes when they encounter traffic policemen.

Another way for traffic and beat policemen to cash in is the so-called accelerated issuance of certificates, which nets at least 20 hryvnias from a single “client.” For instance, you have to pay an additional 20 hryvnias for an “accelerated” issuance of a document that confirms that the bearer is not on the list of people whose driver’s license has been confiscated. Otherwise, you have to wait 10 days to receive the coveted rubber stamp.

A similar situation exists in the health care sector, where bribes are usually paid voluntarily. As a result, according to Volodymyr Shcherbachenko, the head of the Donetsk and Luhansk regional resource and information center of the project Dignified Ukraine, patients even have to pay for free drugs and medical equipment that will be used by the doctor, and make all kinds of “charitable” donations to their hospitals.

BRIBES “ON DEMAND”

Corruption-related problems are also typical of the judicial and executive power system. According to the results of a recent nationwide poll, “The State of Corruption in Ukraine,” 67 percent of respondents who had dealings with bureaucrats since the beginning of 2007 said that one way or another they were directly drawn into sleaze. However, most bribes are not paid voluntarily: the respondents claim that “on-demand bribes” occur in an average of 25 percent of cases, for example, when Ukrainians dealt with officials. They paid a bribe of their own free will only in 11 percent of cases.

Government corruption reigns supreme in industrial inspection bodies, state-owned housing authorities, utility companies, customs, the state licensing service, and army draft boards. One also comes across corruption when applying for a job in the civil service or to a court.

Donetsk residents do not think that corruption can be eradicated: any intervention of law-enforcement bodies will be to no avail. Very few residents of Donetsk oblasts are aware of lawful ways of resolving a problem, let alone their own rights and ways to defend them.

Thus, according to the study conducted by Dignified Ukraine, a very small number of Ukrainians today officially complain about corruption in government or law- enforcement bodies. For example, only 4.1 percent of respondents tried to lodge official complaints about the behavior of bureaucrats or law- enforcement officials. The rest still believe that it is useless to complain (51 percent) or say they should not have made a complaint (21 percent). Another 8 percent noted that making complaints is dangerous because officials might threaten them.

HOW TO COMBAT CORRUPTION?

Experts generally believe that there is no systematic approach to combating corruption in Donetsk oblast and the rest of Ukraine. To reverse this trend at least in the Donetsk region, local civic organizations are holding a number of monitoring, training, and explanatory sessions with residents.

For the last several months the Youth Debating Center has been implementing a project called Youth Against Corruption, whose goal is to encourage young people to adopt a negative attitude to corruption and understand its consequences. The project includes a training course, Combating Corruption, that will be taught by 20 trainers in schools and universities in Donetsk oblast. The project is designed for young people aged 15 to 25. A special part targets senior school pupils and Donetsk university students.

Concurrently, the city of Uhledar, Donetsk oblast, is hosting the project “Accessibility of Government Decisions,” which is being implemented by a number of local civic organizations. In six months’ time it plans to provide residents with access to information on local self-government and protect their interests whenever they come across corruption. The project organizers also want to discover to what extent the population of Uhledar is informed about the work of the local authorities. They plan to organize special training for officials, create a Web site for City Hall, and provide residents with access to information on the various activities of the local government. Similar projects are also being implemented in Horlivka, Dzerzhynsk, Yenakievo, and Debaltseve.

Donetsk oblast also has a regional legal center of the Association of Media Jurists (similar centers have opened in Kyiv, Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kherson, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kerch). They offer advice to journalists and NGOs, explain anti- corruption laws, and help draw up information queries to government bodies as well as explanations if complaints come from officials. Experts say that these kinds of projects are important not just for Donbas but the country as a whole.

According to the preliminary results of all these studies, citizens are offering their own ways to eradicate corruption. For example, in order to root out bribery in education and health care, Ukrainians suggest raising teachers’ and doctors’ salaries, so that they will have fewer reasons to demand bribes. The same should be done with respect to bureaucrats. Officials who remain immune to such measures should be subject to more stringent legislative provisions that will not be confined to fines but will entail criminal liability for bribery.

As for corruption in traffic police and other specific services, such as customs, the tax administration, utilities, etc., Ukrainian citizens are proposing that it be legalized. In their opinion, it will be enough to simplify the system of payment for all kinds of certificates, payment of fines for traffic infractions, cargo transport licensing, and to make employees of these services account for every kopeck they receive “under the table.”

Strangely enough, the most active corruption fighters today are young people, who are ready to propose effective methods to combat this social evil. Ukrainians also think that the mass media are another effective instrument of corruption control: the more they spotlight this problem, the better for society.

Experts say that for the time being nothing has changed with regard to the struggle against corruption in Ukraine in general and Donetsk oblast in particular. Law-enforcement officials are still relying on ordinary citizens and their sense of right and wrong. It is widely believed that a drop in the corruption level depends directly on the resolve of Ukrainians to refuse to pay bribes for any kind of service. But this option is hardly realistic: very few people agree with this because for some reason services that are paid for “under the table” are always faster and of better quality than “legitimate” privileges that take years to obtain.