Want an easier driving test? Pay €200 extra

Photo: Tairo Lutter

Road Administration has asked for help by driving test examiners from other regions, to fill the hole created by five out of nine examiners at Tallinn division suspected in accepting bribes.

By yesterday, six had been released and one arrested of the seven suspected either in accepting or arranging bribes. «Prosecutor’s office asked for one individual to be arrested as with that individual there is the danger of continuing with like crimes and even crimes against administration of justice,» said representative of Northern prosecutor’s office, adding that this was not a Road Administration examiner i.e. not an accepter of bribes but an arranger thereof. The prosecutor’s office would not specify if it was an employee at some driving school.

The prosecutor’s office did specify, however, that the size of the bribe per driving exam stood at about couple of hundred euros i.e. twice the official price of the exam. The majority of criminal episodes have transpired this year, but earlier instances do exist.

Slips ignored

So what will be easier, at an exam, for the couple of hundred euros? As told Postimees by some students and driving teachers, this might mean that a slight error will be winked at by the examiner – so what that for years the exams are being filmed: not all are afterwards watched in detail. An option is that the examiner lets the one examined to do easier manoeuvres in traffic.

A month into his office, Road Administration director-general Priit Sauk told Postimees that he was informed after he entered into office that an investigation was underway regarding bribe suspicion. «I was informed that we had problems in certain divisions while they did not mention specific division, amount of cases, nor names,» said Mr Sauk. He added that the former managers at Road Administration were current about the investigation as well. «I know they were also personally initiators, in order to help detect these dishonest people in our midst and help them out the door.»

Yesterday, two veteran employees, and direct superiors of the suspected examiners, Northern region traffic domain head Aavo Sau and Mustamäe service division head Aivar Leid filed for resignation after a brief talk with the director-general. The latter was amazed to hear that the dismissed mid-managers mentioned in passing that they were aware of possible cheating but thought it to be normal for such things to occur at times.

Also, five suspected examiners no longer work at Road Administration, and their names have been deleted from Road Administration website.

The driving schools teachers talking to Postimees yesterday remained tongue-tied while covering the incident and rather surprised that such stuff still happens, that people are willing to take the stupid risk.

But a former examiner said he was not surprise considering the low salaries of the examiners and the tensions related to the job. The former examiner recalled that driving schools had even written a protest letter against him because he was strict at exams and half of those examined failed the tests under him. «I was thinking about myself, you know, that I wouldn’t want the novice driver, having passed the test easy, to bump into my car the day after,» he said, to explain his guiding principle.

«The people who come to work as examiners will not only decide the fate of a definite student, but actually the fate of us all in traffic. How, for ridiculous sums, may people allow people into the traffic who are not ready for that?» wondered Mr Sauk. «For me, that’s the major problem, not the loss of examiners.»

«If there’s those who offer bribes, there’s those who take ‘em,» admitted a seasoned driving teacher. Another confessed he had had students approach him asking if they could pass easier for money. «Hearing that, I sent them packing,» said the teacher.

A small town driving teacher said people are coming to him from Tallinn to graduate from driving school and to pass the exam in that town. «The students complain that in Tallinn some driving school does not allow students to state exams and demand ever increasing amounts of additional driving hours though an individual knows how to drive and has fulfilled all obligatory hours,» said the small town teacher. He was unable to tell whether it was the Tallinn schools overdoing it, or wanting to earn money on extra driving hours, or whether not letting them to the exams was a hint to get a bribe.

«Driving teachers and examiners know each other and are communicating – all kinds of things can be agreed probably,» thinks a long-time Tallinn driving teacher. He wondered, however, how this is still not a thing of the past.

«It is definitely not like a student sits into the exam car and then the examiner asks her for money – surely these things are agreed elsewhere,» thinks another teacher.

«No examiner dares to take anything from a student. This must have been a long-term relationship of trust developed. Primarily, it is the driving school teachers who are behind the arranging of bribes, just wanting to earn some extra,» thinks pan-Estonian driving school OÜ Autosõit board member Illimar Maasing, adding that the sums were probably being split between teachers and examiners.

«If they are saying the bribes taking is grandiose, hardly there’s someone from the street coming to arrange it,» Estonian Driving Schools Association’s president Enn Saard also hinted at driving schools and teachers being linked to the matter. «When seeking from the street, the talk would spread fast.»

The exact mechanisms of receiving and arranging the bribes, and whether the suspects coordinated the activities between themselves, the prosecutor’s office has not disclosed at this stage of the investigation.

Though they also declined from specifying how many cases they are handling at the moment, the matter may prove to be bulky considering that a single examiner has up to 800 exams a year. Obviously, not all that come to test drives are willing to pay extra, but with one of the seven or so a day agrees, thousands of additional euros heap up during a month.

Exams need rearrangement

Mr Sauk said the existing exams systems must definitely be altered. «What I see above all and as has already been discussed in the house, perhaps examiners should not be connected to a definite division,» said the director-general. He thinks perhaps they will create a separate exams centre to coordinate the work of examiners over all of Estonia.

«Today, it is rather explicitly known who is working when, and who is managing which exam. We must change that, to avoid agreements and collusions whether with definite students or mediators. Whether these be driving schools or whoever,» added Mr Sauk.

With over half of examiners sacked, last week already exams were being cancelled. Director-general said they have brought in help from other regions. Which means waiting lines may get drawn out outside Tallinn as well.

The last large-scale bribery case related to driving tests was in Haapsalu, in 2011–2012, where examiner Rain Jostmann was sentenced for four years conditionally with four years of probation. Mr Jostmann’s proven criminal income amounted to €4,000. Within the case, some 25 people were punished for arranging and giving of bribes.

In the case at hand, the prosecutor’s office asks all who have given bribes at state exams to let them know.