Bulgaria-Corruption-Survey BTA - 1999/10/28
Customs officers, policemen and people working in the
judiciary are the most corrupt in Bulgaria, according to 30.7 per
cent, 25.9 per cent and 25.1 per cent of respondents in a
nationally representative survey.
It was carried out in September among 1,110 people aged
over 18. The results were made public by Alexander Stoyanov of
Coalition 2000 on Wednesday. The table is trailed by MPs,
teachers and municipal councillors, identified as corrupt by 3.9
per cent, 5.0 per cent and 5.7 per cent of respondents. As to
the judiciary, judges are most corrupt, said 11.3 per cent of
those interviewed, followed by prosecutors (9.5 per cent) and
investigators (6.1 per cent). The main conclusions are that the
public reaction to corruption has strengthened, the level of
corruption is more or less unchanged, and the Government has
moved one notch up on the scale ranking institutions from the
most to the least corrupt. Corruption is the country's third
worst problem, according to 38 per cent of respondents, the first
two being low incomes (64.6 per cent) and unemployment (50.2 per
cent). Crime is ranked fourth (32.4 per cent). Asked where
corruption is most widespread, 46.9 per cent said Customs, 8.9
per cent the judiciary, 7.7 per cent the government, 6.6 per cent
the tax authorities, and 6.2 per cent the police. The
President's Office and the army are the least corrupt. The key
factors in the spread of corruption are the desire to get rich
quickly of people in high seats (54.8 per cent of respondents),
low salaries (43.6 per cent), flaws in legislation (37.8 per
cent), etc. A mere 4.7 per cent say there is a national
predisposition to corruption, while 7.4 per cent attribute it to
problems inherited from the communist regime. Pessimism about
the outcome of the fight against corruption prevails.