Poland Carrying Out Mass Inspections Of Cargo Transportation Companies Founded By Belarusians

They are looking for illegal practices in their activities.

On March 16, inspections of more than 60 trucking firms, which, according to preliminary information, are based on Belarusian and Russian capital, started in Poland. Inspections are carried out by the Road Transport Inspectorate, National Tax Service, Border Guard, National Labour Inspectorate and Construction Supervisory Authority.

Inspections have covered transport companies in Białystok, Poznań, Wrocław, Częstochowa, and Biała Podlaska. Supervisory authorities are looking for illegal practices in the operation of firms.

In particular they check whether the bases of carriers comply with regulations. For example, a firm should have parking spaces for its trucks that accommodate at least one third of the fleet. However, even at the stage of selecting companies to check through the registers, the civil service discovered that there could be more than a dozen trucking companies at some addresses.

All other aspects of work are also checked, in particular, availability of all necessary documents for work, including drivers' registration, financial documentation. They also check observance of working hours by drivers, licenses of drivers and carriers, documents on the fleets of companies.

"In case of gross violations, the General Road Transport Inspectorate has the right to suspend or revoke the license of a road transport operator, and I assure you that in case of unscrupulous entrepreneurs we will use it," Road Transport Inspectorate head Alvin Gayadhur said.

Other services check the legality of stay of foreign drivers in Poland, the legality of their employment and the correctness of their registration, as well as issues of payment of taxes by companies. Some of the companies selected for inspection have been identified as those where tax violations are likely to occur.

In turn, the construction supervision is checking whether the facilities have been built legally on the premises of the firms and whether they comply with the documents.

At the moment, the inspection authorities are still examining the documents they have received. The Road and Transportation Inspectorate promises further inspections of other companies.

Controls also continue directly on the roads, including inspectors stopping trucks with foreign registration for inspection. It is reported that last year about 47% of inspections on the roads concerned foreign trucks, with 53% of violations and 52% of the fines imposed related to foreign firms.

As Charter97.org reported, the Polish special services have detained nine people suspected of cooperation with the Russian special services. Three citizens of Belarus are among them.