Elena Lukash

First Deputy Chief of Administration of the President, the Representative of the President of the Constitutional Court Elena Lukash during briefing in Kiev, on Thursday, April 14, 2011. Today, President of Ukraine will introduce to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine a draft law of Ukraine on amendments to some legislative acts of Ukraine eliminating excessive state regulation in the sphere of road transportation, Presidential Advisor, Representative of the President in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Elena Lukash said today at a briefing. She said that the main purpose of this bill is to simplify the procedure of mandatory inspection and control of the technical condition of vehicles, cancel unnecessary costs for car owners, eliminate the existing corrupt mechanisms of obtaining mandatory vehicle inspection certificates, and remove inefficient and excessive regulatory procedures. The bill also specifies the relations between a traffic police inspector and a driver on the road, and sets the minimum number of papers a person needs for driving a car. "As experience shows, the current inspection system cannot provide real control over the technical condition of vehicles. In most cases (according to experts, in about 90% of them) vehicle owners buy vehicle inspection and medical certificates through well-established corruption schemes. Experts estimate that annual volumes of these informal corrupt payments reach a billion UAH," Elena Lukash said. According to the bill, she said, all types of privately owned cars, regardless of their make, model, or service life will be subject to unconditional release from the mandatory technical inspection. This also includes trailers, motorcycles, scooters, etc. If a car is used for business purposes, its owner will still have to pass mandatory technical inspection every two years. Trucks and taxi vehicles will be inspected annually. Buses and special vehicles transporting dangerous goods will be checked twice a year. Photo by Mikhail Markiv / POOL / UNIAN