Bulgaria-Corruption-Survey BTA - 1999/5/13
Corruption is most widespread among customs officers,
lawyers, judges, prosecutors and police officers, followed by
business people, doctors, the tax administration and ministry
staff.
This is according to surveys conducted by the Coalition
2000 Forum and the Vitosha Research Agency. One of the surveys
is representative for the country and involved 1,122 people,
Coalition 2000 Deputy Director Alexander Stoyanov, who is also
Director of Vitosha Research, said on Wednesday. The second
survey involved 320 public employees: doctors, teachers and
university lecturers, public servants and police officers. The
surveys were conducted between March 27 and April 16 and were
compared with surveys of June 1998 and February 1999. The
corruption table is topped by customs officers (73.2 per cent of
respondents), followed by lawyers (55.4 per cent) and judges
(50.8 per cent). Journalists and teachers are corrupt according
to 12 per cent and 8.4 per cent of respondents, respectively.
Corruption is a problem of public significance according to 34.2
per cent of those interviewed, compared to 38.4 per cent in
February. Corruption is the fourth most important problem after
unemployment (64.1 per cent), low incomes (49.1 per cent) and
crime (39.1 per cent). Respondents gave three answers each which
is why columns exceed 100. Society has become slightly more
permissive to corruption, but also less susceptible to it,
Stoyanov said. Pressure from public sector employees for bribes
or services has dropped. Of the respondents who came in contact
with customs officers, 27.9 per cent were pressured to give
bribes. The figure for police officers is 22.8 per cent, doctors
21.5 per cent, administrative staff in the judiciary 20.4 per
cent. Teachers and MPs trail the table, with 4.8 per cent of
respondents who had contacts with them reporting that they
demanded bribes. The main prerequisites for the spread of
corruption are economic: 52.7 per cent of respondents say it is
the get-rich-quick urge of people in high places, followed by low
salaries (51.5 per cent), and imperfect laws (38.8 per cent). In
April 6.8 per cent of respondents said corruption was one of the
vestiges of the communist past. Corruption levels are lowest in
the President's Office, the army and the National Statistical
Institute. The Privatization Agency and the judiciary have the
highest levels of corruption. Public servants said that members
of the following five occupations exerted the strongest pressure
for bribes on them: customs officers, municipal servants,
business people, doctors and police officers. Bankers will be
included in the questionnaire in June, Stoyanov said.