Azerbaijan: Traffic Cops' Pay Rise Unlikely to Curb Graft

The government’s decision earlier this month to grant traffic police a huge pay rise in a bid to combat corruption is unlikely to work, many Azeris believe.

And the opposition have dismissed the September 1 initiative as little more than a stunt to gain the support of public servants ahead of parliamentary elections next month.

About 1,400 traffic policemen now earn 350 US dollars a month with officers getting 500-700 dollars, up to seven times more than their original salaries.

Interior Minister Ramil Usubov said the new money was aimed at stamping out the notorious practice where long-suffering motorists are forced to pay bribes to traffic policemen for both real and imagined offences.

"Traffic police can no longer say that they don't earn enough to feed their families," Usubov told a meeting of State Traffic Police officials. “I suggest you clean up your act and take steps to eliminate corrupt practices in your work.”

Four traffic policemen have been fired for taking bribes since the September 1 pay rise, fuelling the scepticism of motorists who feel the initiative will have little impact.

Rasim Ahundov, an unregistered taxi-driver, believes higher salaries for traffic policemen will simply result in bigger bribes paid by drivers as the government is also expected to impose higher fines to help fund the salary increase. He says there is a precedent.

“When the traffic police drove Turkish-made Tofash cars, they would pocket 10,000 manat (two dollars) for minor violations, but once they started driving German-made Volkswagens, the scale of bribes doubled,” said Ahundov.

In March this year, all traffic police units in the Azerbaijan capital, Baku, switched to 200 smart new Volkswagens and BMWs purchased by the interior ministry. Their old Turkish-made cars were recycled to units in the provinces.

Official fines for minor offences currently range from about four to ten dollars, but can exceed 100 dollars for serious violations.

Traffic police have traditionally targeted drivers of imported cars, from whom they reckoned they could extort a larger bribe. Expatriates in Azerbaijan joke that the Azeri acronym DYP Dovlet Yol Polisi or State Traffic Police, stands for "Did You Pay?"

Motorists do usually pay up because the alternative is so much worse, and so much more expensive. As well as fines, drivers get points against their licence for serious traffic offences, such as jumping a red light, drink driving or causing an accident. Ten points, which may result from just two such offences, and their licence is revoked for one year. In order to get it back, they have to pass a written test on the highway code.

But in a system riddled with corruption, even a licence can be bought.

Yevgeny Staritsin, who owns a Lada, told IWPR, “Before, you could buy a driver’s license for 200 dollars. Now it's at least double that, so any driver would gladly give a traffic policeman a bribe of half that amount rather than go through all that.”

Ilham, a reporter for a Baku newspaper, said he got a licence without ever taking the mandatory driving course or a road test, “First I paid 100 dollars to enrol in a driving school and get my certificate. Then, three months later, I paid another 300 dollars and got my licence.”

Traffic policemen aren’t the only law enforcement officials to have received a recent pay rise. A further 3,100 officers, including those who provide security for diplomats and work in special forces units, have also enjoyed the same hefty wage increase.

But this largesse comes at a price, with Usubov predicting the salary increases will cost the interior ministry 32 billion manats (seven million dollars) this year, and a further 100 billion manats (21 million dollars) the following year.

However, average salaries across the police force remain low, ranging from 105 to 130 dollars monthly. The interior ministry insists other units will be brought up to par with traffic police in the future in an effort to improve the standard of living of policemen.

Rena Safaralieva, of the international anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, agrees that higher salaries for public servants are a priority in fighting corruption.

“Only when public servants, including policemen, start earning a decent wage, can you really enforce the law and punish offenders within the police," Safaralieva told IWPR.

But Safaralieva believes that money alone will not eliminate corruption within the police force, and that the government should move to dismantle the “pyramid system of bribery”, whereby extortionate bribes are demanded in order to pay off superiors up the chain of command.

One traffic policeman, who asked to remain anonymous, told IWPR, “We feel like beggars when we take bribes from drivers, but few of them know that our bosses actually make us do this, that they take the biggest cut.”

And he confirmed motorists' fears when he added, “For the moment, we've been told unofficially not to take bribes, but I’m sure this is temporary. It will be business as usual after the elections. In our unit, they say higher salaries will mean higher bribes.”

Isak Avazoglu, press spokesman for the opposition Popular Front Party, is convinced the president’s initiative is a purely populist move ahead of the November parliamentary elections. “The president always throws public servants a bone before the elections, in order to win votes. This extra money will make no difference to the police force,” he told IWPR.

The interior ministry has no plans to follow the example set by Georgia and Ukraine, whose traditional traffic police force was abolished and a new body, organised along American lines, set up with fewer officers and a zero tolerance policy on corruption.

Eisan Zahidov, a ministry spokesman, insists it will be enough to enforce stricter discipline and tougher punishment for police who violate the rules.

Following the president’s decree, the interior ministry launched a “bribery hot-line” where citizens can complain about police extortion.

But an opinion poll recently conducted by Transparency International revealed that citizens are for the most part resigned to corruption.

“Citizens have no expectations from the anti-corruption drive. They think it will have no effect,” Safaralieva told IWPR. “Regular citizens remain unprotected. What choice do they have when a policeman demands a bribe or threatens to take away your licence or your car?”

Rahman Gesalov has his own method of dealing with crooked traffic police. “I take the officer’s picture with my mobile phone and get his name and rank. I take down his licence plate number and warn him that I will lodge a complaint. That usually does the trick.”

Rufat Abbasov is a reporter for Reuters in Baku. Gulnaz Gulieva is a freelance journalist based in Baku.