TIRANA, March. 30 -For the second year in the row the Institute for Development Research and Alternatives (IDRA) prepared and published the Corruption Survey report. The results of the survey were presented in a conference organized by Rule of Law/USAID project at Sheraton Hotel. The conference was attended by media, civil society representatives, international community and other institutions. The aim of this survey is to have a tool that tracks over time the perceptions, experiences and attitudes of Albanian public towards the corruption phenomenon.
Main findings
A total of 1872 persons were interviewed in the mass public sample and 574 in the public sector sample. Compared with the survey in 2005, the 2006 edition shows little change in the corruption perception with most of the respondents assigning high corruption levels to the majority of institutions. There is a considerable one year improvement in the image of policemen and urban respondents react better to NGOs and ministries compared to last year. The most corrupt individuals in the perception of Albanian remain customs officers.
When asked if corruption had increased or decreased, 38 percent answered hat it had significantly increased, a 20 percent higher figure than last year.
Corruption victimization
The phenomena of corruption has become a widely spread social commonality with mst people interviewed accepting the fact that they have not hesitated to pay a bribe in the health sector or to the police in case needed a preferential treatment or the solution of a specific bureaucratic problem.
