US to grant $220 mln on Ukrainian customs service modernization - Sayenko

"The amount of 220 million dollars has been confirmed during a meeting with [US] Vice President Joseph Biden. We are speaking about three key goals on which these funds would be spent. One of them is reform of the customs service. First of all, the money from the U.S. will be spent on the purchase of equipment that allows to control and track the smuggling flows which today unfortunately manage to pass our customs checkpoints," Sayenko said. The minister stressed that customs employees would be provided with access to databases through which they can "monitor customs value correctly and impose relevant charges on goods." The second goal is the purchase of customs monitoring equipment. "When a customs officer comes to a car, inspects it and writes the results in paper documents, it is difficult to control him or her. Technical equipment will allow automatically check what is transferred. A new system will determine value of goods automatically," Sayenko said.