A study of the reforms of the Ministry of Internal Affairs shows: these are more likely PR than real reforms. But there is no reason to refuse them. If the current reformers fail (which is likely), the next ones will come.
Arsen Avakov
Under-reformer Avakov
It seems that the President has claims against Arsen Avakov. It is not for nothing that during the preparation of the new Cabinet, Avakov became a stumbling block between the President and the Prime Minister. Yatsenyuk managed to defend Avakov, but soon the minister was appointed first deputy Eka Zguladze, responsible for the reform. How so? The reform is the personal “merit” of the minister; he has not tired of promising it for a year now. But it’s of little use… One gets the impression that Avakov is not in the mood to move forward with reforms.
Soon Arsen Borisovich will celebrate the anniversary of his reign as the Ministry of Internal Affairs. What is a reformer’s asset? The concept of reforming the ministry approved by the Cabinet of Ministers, the law on the dispersal of the BOP service passed through parliament, the protracted experiment in the Khmelnitsky region to merge the PPS and the traffic police, the maintenance of volunteer battalions in the ranks of the National Guard.
And on the other hand: the unshakable cop order. Yes, the police have not yet been reformed, and most of the old personnel are in place. If we reform, then we’ll live… Just a minute: according to Avakov and Zguladze and the concept of reform, the process of transforming the police into police with a human face will take more than one year. All this time we have to put up with spontaneous markets, which are covered everywhere by local cops; turn a blind eye to the chaos on the roads – with parking anywhere and anyhow, speeding and exceeding lanes, with ongoing extortions of traffic cops?.. And the fact that the police did not distinguish themselves in investigating high-profile cases is also to blame for the lack of reforms? In order to force the district police officers to work at least somehow, reform is absolutely necessary, or can we try to work based on what we have? Just prohibit “resolving issues” and protecting illegal businesses, start working with the population, and interact with the criminal investigation department.
I’ll track it further. The experiment of competitive selection of police leaders with the participation of the public somehow did not catch on… It is of course: the old-fashioned way is not so troublesome and financially attractive. And the concept of police reform itself underwent a purely formal discussion with the public. Maybe it’s just not the right time for this? For some reason this has happened in other departments. I’m reading the report of Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Vladimir Omelyan:
“On Monday they rejected the draft law on river transport, disaggregated by the EVA residents. After the investigation in the middle of the Ministry, we will launch a public discussion. Our meta – from whom we decide to remove the framework document, according to the law, the rules of interaction between the state and business on internal waterways. Together, the experts prepared the activities of the state institutions in the river. Nezabar will present it for wide discussion…
… Having ousted the Cabinet of Ministers, our initiative to carry out a clear-cut selection of top government officials was confirmed by a resolution. After completing the formalities, we will be ready to vote on the finalists and be the first to submit them to the nominating committee at the Ministry of Economic Development.”
And one more thing: there was hope that under the new minister the internal fight against werewolves in uniform would intensify. It hasn’t worsened. Sometimes Avakov reports on Facebook about arrests of lower-level police officers with bribes. But – not a single fact of the capture of a boss with the rank of head of a district administration or central administration. But the police are rotting from the ranks of the generals. Are they all crystal clear and do not take bribes? Perhaps the Internal Security Service and the Personnel Inspectorate were disbanded at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but we don’t know about it?..
Now about the National Guard battalions in the ATO zone. Honor and praise to them for defending the Motherland, and to the minister for good material support. Knowledgeable people claim that Avakov does not spare time and money for the battalions. True, sometimes his generosity surprises. Remember the scandal at the very beginning of hostilities with the purchase of KAMAZ trucks for the needs of the National Guard. Avakov explained: domestic producers sold out all their products and had to buy from the enemy. But why buy new expensive cars for war, where the service life of equipment is calculated in months and days? You can buy something decent with mileage, but in large quantities. The army does not hesitate to restore thirty-year-old equipment instead of buying new: it works out much cheaper this way. Seasoned businessman Avakov knows this, but for some reason he did not spare money from the meager police budget for brand new trucks – all of the highest standard…
And also about the soldiers of the National Guard. As is known, unlike the military, they are not subject to the control of the military prosecutor’s office. The police must independently control their guards. And let’s face it, there are big problems with this. Apart from the scandal with battalion commander Melnichuk, nothing has been disclosed. Somehow, after a leak to the press, the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was forced to confirm that the Donbas battalion was disbanded for looting. That’s all! But according to existing information, there are very big complaints against the NG battalions: looting, rape, murder, “toll passage” through checkpoints… Some battalion fighters over the past months have become very rich people: this would not have happened to them in peaceful life. Is there any fight being waged against this vile phenomenon? Or maybe the Ministry of Internal Affairs is “protecting” these processes?.. The minister is silent.
They may object to me: there is a war and preparations for reform; the minister cannot keep up with everything. I will object: is it really that all the personnel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are at the front, is it really possible that instead of 3,000 managers, there are only a minister and a secretary in the central apparatus? Why wasn’t there a command to bring to the mountain at least one high-profile corruption case against police werewolves? For example, to bring order to the illegal mining of amber in the Rivne region… Oh yes, there are volumes worth millions of dollars, and “in business” there are local prosecutors, cops, civil officials who monthly “move the share up” – to Kyiv… It brings in no less money protection of markets – legal and not so legal. Over the course of a year, I haven’t heard about corruption scandals involving cops somewhere on the “7 kilometer” or the “Barabashovo” market…
Well, it’s not even convenient to mention the fact that the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not distinguish itself in any way in investigating cases on the Maidan. But the “Berkutnya” went to court to support their colleagues accused of executions on a service bus. It seems that an official investigation was conducted into this matter, but no one heard about its results.
Maybe everything will work out as the reform progresses? If so, it is not thanks to, but in spite of the “reformer” Avakov. I’ll explain. From the moment the new minister began to select his entourage, serious questions arose about him. For example, regarding the appointment of the head of the Traffic Police Department Sirenko. People close to Avakov are at a loss about the reasons for his myopia in personnel matters and make an assumption: he is not free in key appointments. How else can we explain the unsinkability of Sirenko, who retained his post even after a number of scandalous incidents? Moreover, he is 100% subject to the lustration procedure… but has successfully avoided it. What merits made Avakov appoint this officer with a dubious reputation and treasure him like the apple of his eye? Recently, Sirenko’s subordinate made public not new extortion schemes in the Zhytomyr traffic police. Allegedly, traffic cops transfer $250,000 from each region to Kyiv every month. We think this amount is underestimated. Soon the too talkative inspector lost his position, but Sirenko remained… But an ordinary traffic police officer was lustrated – directly at the time when he was serving in the ATO.
Reform of the traffic police + police service: damn lumpy?
But there remains hope that with the beginning of the reform, the police will turn into police, dress up in a new uniform and start working as they should! This is what Avakov and Zguladze prophesy to us. I don’t believe the words. I read the 60-page Concept of Reform, asked how the Khmelnitsky experiment of crossing the traffic police and the police service was going… I didn’t believe it even more. And here’s why.
Initially, I was tormented by the question: for what reason are reforms starting with the traffic police and public order protection, and not with the service of local police officers, for example, or with the criminal investigation department? There are two explanations: money and PR. Firstly, the reform of the traffic police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is financed by the American fund ICITAP. The money they give is not small, but – specifically for carrying out the reform, and not for maintaining the new service – this nuance is very important, which I will explain later. Secondly, the traffic police reform will look impressive and catch the eye of a population tired of police lawlessness – such a reform is doomed to have a loud PR effect.
It should be noted that initially the preparation of the reform was carried out by the Expert Council under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, consisting of human rights activists and lawyers. They prepared their project. At the same time, Yuriy Lutsenko registered his own project in parliament (as he later stated, this was a provocative step). Then there was another group that prepared their own project, which remained unappreciated. Finally, Samopomich registered a project prepared by lawyer Alexander Panchuk in parliament. Since then, there has been sluggish coordination between Lutsenko’s and Samopomoch’s projects. Both are far from perfect and require improvement. What will actually happen in the end is unknown. The secret is that Zguladze today is practically single-handedly “steering” the reform. Members of the expert council that Avakov created are practically excluded from the process. Zguladze also did not support the idea of creating a Public Council under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. All by myself… But in vain. As an example, let us cite the innovation from the reformers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to deprive the traffic police of the function of registering vehicles.
Curious, have any of the reformers recently tried to register a car? Those who installed it say that they didn’t notice any problems, red tape or extortion: almost like in Georgia. It turns out that you can make the existing system work. They will object to me: this is not European. OK, let’s put registration functions in the hands of district state administrations, as the reformers propose. What will we get as a result? Here is an expert assessment of a specialist who, like others, did not bother to involve in the development of the reform.
Oleg Nazarenko, General Director of the All-Ukrainian Association of Automobile Importers and Dealers, academician of the Transport Academy of Ukraine, member of the Council for Foreign Economic Affairs under the Cabinet of Ministers, etc.:
“The popular opinion now is to take away the function of car registration from the traffic police. This is not the time to take this function away from the traffic police. For new cars – YES, the car dealerships themselves can do this (in fact, this has been happening for a long time – for bribes from the MREO, the salon itself registers the cars that it sells to clients – author), but for used ones – NO! My reasoning:
1) Budget costs. They propose to hand over car registration to district administrations. There are approximately 200 MREOs and about 700 RDAs in the country. Did you count? These 200 MREOs coped with the registration of 662 thousand new cars in 2008, plus used resales. Now sales are 92,000 new and a meager used one. We are being offered to create 700 new MREOs under the RDA, closing 200 old ones, instead of reducing the number of MREOs by five times. Fools? No! Some people want powers, some want to privatize MREO buildings, others want to install a godfather-matchmaker in a bread-and-butter position. The same MREO employees will go to work at the RDA, plus they will recruit a bunch of new officials… Why?
2) A mess will begin. Now access to the AIPS database is strictly controlled, however, “infusions” occur periodically – adding “left” cars to the database. What will happen when girls from RDA get access to AIPS? I’m afraid to imagine.
3) Huge amounts of money will be wasted in the purchase of 700 sets of equipment, installation of secure communication lines… The bill is in the hundreds of millions!
4) If the traffic police still have access to the database through the ORD, and girls from the RDA through registration, then seven nannies will have a child without an eye.”
No, Nazarenko is not the ultimate truth. There are other – European and reformist ways to solve the traffic police’s unusual functions. And they, moreover, do not promise millions of expenses – only savings. For example, you can go the route of registering real estate transactions. There is a registration service that processes documents for new houses. All other resale transactions are drawn up and registered by a notary. He already has access to the registry, all that remains is to connect it to the AIPS database. To simplify procedures, the “regionalization” of registration numbers should be abolished and the notary should be delegated the right to issue technical passports. For new domestically produced cars, license plates are issued by the manufacturing plant, for imported ones – by customs. The completely unjustified need to issue a certificate-invoice disappears, there are no queues, no corruption, enormous cost savings, a lot of other corruption and criminal components disappear…
Obviously, this scheme did not occur to Avakov and Zguladze. But they cannot know everything. We just need to prepare and carry out the reform not by a “narrow circle of limited people,” but with the involvement of the public and experts.
So, what will we get at the first stage of police reform from Avakov-Zguladze? Everything is in accordance with the Concept approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. 70% of the personnel will be included in the joint traffic police-PPS service, as well as in the district police service. It is also planned to reduce the management staff (though not a word about the timing). Thus, if you believe the Concept, the remaining 30% of employees will be made up of all sorts of bosses, suppliers, personnel officers, accountants, drivers… Wait, it seems they forgot something else. Oh yes: criminal investigation! Strange thing: there is not a word about the main police service in the Concept. True, some “detectives” are mentioned, without decoding. And the reform will not reach them this year. And not in the next… Given the trend of a jump in serious crimes, the intensification of professional and organized crime, this looks extremely strange.
Does the reform of the Ministry of Internal Affairs really begin with the traffic police and the protection of public order only because the Americans give money for it? I think if the traffic police are dispersed tomorrow, no big tragedy will happen. Remember, Yushchenko dispersed the traffic police and they disappeared for a while. There was no transport collapse… Yes, we need to restore order with the traffic police, and order on the streets too. But today it is not much worse than a year or two ago. But a huge number of illegal weapons have appeared in the country, which are increasingly firing and exploding. Robberies and banditry increased sharply. The peak is still ahead. Organized crime is raising its head. This misfortune cannot be overcome by joint traffic police-police patrols. Who will resist professional crime? The answer is known: criminal investigation.
The ending follows
