One of the top news stories of recent days was Interior Minister Arsen Avakov's announcement regarding the situation with biometric passports.
The fact that Ukraine is beginning to issue such documents is truly important, as this is one of the conditions for the European Union to grant visa-free travel to Ukrainian citizens.
But, unfortunately, much of the information from the minister is untrue and constitutes an admission of blatantly illegal activity by officials.
For example, Mr. Avakov claims that in 2013 a foreign passport cost 800 hryvnia, and in 2014 it cost 120 hryvnia.
This is absolutely not true. These are incomparable figures. The last figure (120 UAH) is the cost of a blank passport (including document personalization). And this amount did not change in either 2013 or 2014.
At the same time, due to illegal extortions in the State Migration Service (SMS) system, citizens actually pay between 400 and 800 UAH for a foreign passport.
This was the case in 2013, and it remained the same in 2014. This information is blatantly manipulated.
Moreover, in 2014, the situation even worsened, because the State Migration Service began to "drive" citizens to the offices of the state enterprise "Document" to obtain passports, where an additional 250 UAH is charged for each passport.
This GP will be discussed further.
But it is important that, in addition to this “mistake,” the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ message, unfortunately, also contains outright calls to violate the law.
First, the Minister of Internal Affairs informed the public of the cost of a new international passport (the so-called "biometric"). This calculation, according to Arsen Borisovich, includes: "261 UAH (15 euros at the exchange rate of December 29, 2014) + a state fee of 170 UAH + the cost of registration services of 87,15 UAH. A total of 518 UAH 15 kopecks."
In doing so, the minister justified the current chaos within the State Migration Service, which is associated with the total disregard for court decisions regarding foreign passport payment cases.
The Supreme Court of Ukraine settled numerous legal disputes on December 3, 2013, when it ruled that the only legitimate payment for a foreign passport is the state fee (i.e., 170 UAH), and that extorting other payments is illegal.
It is important to emphasize once again that this court decision is binding on all authorities (in accordance with Part 1 of Article 244-2 of the Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine), that is, on all officials—both the State Migration Service, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and any other government agency.
And the fact that it is still not being implemented is solely the fault of the incompetent prosecutor's office, which does not see the obvious crime (Article 382 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
Actual losses to citizens from violations of court decisions by the State Migration Service amount to more than UAH 300 million annually.
Secondly, the minister officially advertises the activities of the state enterprise "Document" in the State Migration Service system.
And the problem isn't just that this state-owned enterprise charges additional fees (in the case of a foreign passport, 250 UAH) for nothing, because this state-owned enterprise doesn't perform any of the work Arsen Avakov writes about.
First and foremost, the activities of the State Enterprise "Document" have been illegal since January 1, 2013 (according to Part 7 of Article 20 of the Law of Ukraine "On Administrative Services"). Moreover, this State Enterprise profits not only from international passports, but also from fictitious "consulting" and "creation of document packages" for dozens of other administrative services provided by the State Migration Service.
Of course, a minister in charge of hundreds of thousands of subordinates may not be aware of the small nuances of the ministry's system.
But someone provided him with such information and effectively made Avakov an accomplice to this entire illegal passport system of corruption.
Other problems in the passport sphere can also be analyzed.
Why, for example, does the government consider a foreign passport a "luxury" and charge citizens not just the cost of the service, but more than double the price?
Can the removal of EDAPS from the passport manufacturing market be considered a victory if the cost of a passport remains suspiciously high (for comparison, a similar passport for Moldova is printed by a Finnish manufacturer for less than 7 euros)?
Why is the cost of a Ukrainian passport produced at a Ukrainian company calculated in euros and not hryvnia?
Why does the new democratic government stubbornly refuse to change the law that underpins the issuance of biometric passports? After all, let me remind you, it's still the 2012 law "On the Unified State Demographic Registry..." authored by the notorious Party of Regions member Vasily Gritsak. Among other things, this law requires billions in investments to create an integrated mega-database—the Unified Demographic Registry—that society doesn't need.
There are many other questions. However, unfortunately, the new government, like its predecessors, stubbornly ignores them.
The question here isn't simply how much citizens pay for a passport, but whether Ukraine has basic legal order, respect for court decisions, and whose interests officials prioritize—public, departmental, or even private.
It must be acknowledged that in 2014 the State Migration Service system became even more closed and completely ignored public demands for transparency and dialogue.
At least it’s good that the Minister of Internal Affairs has finally acknowledged his involvement in the functioning of this system and his responsibility for it.
Viktor Tymoshchuk, Center for Political and Legal Reforms
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