Russian President Vladimir Putin (front) at the Krasnaya Polyana ski resort in Sochi
Photo: ÐÈÀ ÍÎÂÎÑÒÈ
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Corruption Uncovered in Eastern Port Customs
An corruption scandal has paralyzed operations at the customs post at Eastern Port. The prosecutor began on July 13, when deputy head of the customs clearance department Alexey Pashko was taken into custody. He was held by the security service of the Nakhodka Customs Service for three days and is said to now be in a military hospital.
On July 16, three of Pashko's subordinates, Mikhail Redkin, Alexander Maun and Vadim Kochereshchenko, were taken into custody by the customs security service, the turned over to the transportation police for continued questioning and charging. On the same day, head of customs clearance at the port Taras Evdokimov was taken in by the Nakhodka transportation prosecutor and chief of the customs post Valery Petrov was declared wanted for questioning. Petrov was vacationing in Ukraine at the time and has not returned to Russia.
On Monday, Redkin, Maun and Kochereshchenko sent a letter to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation and the office of the presidential representative for the Far East complaining that violence and torture were used against them by members of the customs security service and the transportation police. Svetlana Shiryaeva, chief customs inspector at the post, told Kommersant that only 7 of the 30 employees in her division are coming to work. The rest have taken vacation or sick time. They have been replaced with people from other divisions who are unfamiliar with the work there, and shipments at the port are backing up.
Transport Prosecutor of Nakhodka Denis Babikov told Kommersant yesterday that Evdokimov has been charged with abuse of office and bribery. According to investigators, he instituted a bonus system for employees using money received in exchange for expediting shipments and other services. The customs officers thus collected $60,000-80,000 per month and received about $3000 per month each.
Babikov noted that the customs service put up “fierce resistance” to the corruption investigation and called the current slow operations there, where 40-50 declarations are being processed per day instead of the usual 120-200 “sabotage.” The port has container, coal and timber terminals and processes 16-18 million tons of cargo per year.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 25, 2007
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