TIRANA, June 2 – While public perception about corruption remains at almost ‘totalitarian’ high levels, personal experience with paying bribes to public officials has registered only a slight decline over the past five years, according to a U.S.-funded survey conducted by IDRA research company.
About 89 percent of the general public thinks corruption among public officials is either “widespread” or “somewhat widespread” but when it comes to personal experience, two out of five respondents (44 percent) claimed to have paid bribes to receive public services in 2015, compared to 3 out of 5 (57 percent) in 2010, showed the survey.
Speaking at the launch of the survey results, U.S. ambassador to Albania Donald Lu, who has been one of the top promoters of a justice reform in Albania to tackle widespread perceived corruption, said he was not surprised by the conclusions.
“The study continues to show that the biggest problems of corruption remain with political party leaders, prosecutors, judges and customs officers. It shows that the people of Albania really do understand what is happening with corruption in their country. It is time that politicians started listening to them,” said ambassador Lu.
“Judicial corruption not only allows judges and politicians to fill their pockets with corrupt money, it is destroying the lives of normal honest people. Rich and powerful men buy justice, while women, the poor and those without political power are the victims,” said Ambassador Lu who also brought an example of how a corrupt judge in Albania robbed a women who was seeking to divorce her convicted sex offender husband of the property and the custody of her three children.
On a zero to 100 scale with 0 “No help at all” and 100 “Helps a lot” courts were seen as the least helpful institution in the fight against corruption, scoring 32 points in 2015, a decrease of 8 points compared to five years ago.
Customs and tax officials, judges, prosecutors and party leaders were perceived as the most corrupt public officials while public school teachers, religious leaders, the President and the media as the most honest.
Findings from the 2015 survey also show that Albanian citizens are now more likely to condemn even bribe givers.
Public perception on corruption continues being influenced by citizens’ political leaning, with opposition right-wing supporters perceiving the environment as more corrupt, showed the survey.
The IDRA survey shows a majority of citizens have a grim perspective of the country’s general economic situation. Findings showed that that almost 3 out of 5 (59 percent) of respondents view the situation as either “bad” or “very bad” . Even when compared to a year ago, most citizens (53 percent) think the economic situation in the country is worse.
Expectations are more optimistic as 1 out of 3 Albanians (35 percent) believes the economic situation in the country will be “better” next year, while only 1 in 4 (28 percent) thinks the situation will get worse.
Some 1,000 respondents nationwide were surveyed in the corruption perception survey in early 2016.
An earlier survey conducted by the Albanian Center for Economic Research as part of the Southeast Europe Leadership for Development and Integrity (SELDI) anti-corruption and good-governance coalition showed one out of two Albanians admit to having been demanded directly or indirectly to bribe public officials. The 2016 survey showed corruption perception has deteriorated by 5 percent compared to 2014 and what’s more concerning two-thirds of the surveyed citizens indicated they would be engaged in corruptive acts if they were part of the public administration.
