TIC Presents Findings of Global Corruption Barometer 2007

07 December 2007

The Transparency International Croatia presented, yesterday, December 6, the 2007 Global Corruption Barometer. The survey of public perceptions of corruption was conducted by Transparency International (TI), in cooperation with Gallup International Institute.

Globally, political parties, judiciary, police and economy are seen as the most corrupt, with churches, NGOs and the military on the opposite end of the scale, as the least corrupt institutions.

According to the Global Barometer, Croatian citizens believe that the biggest sources of corruption are the judiciary, with an average grade of 4.3, followed by the healthcare system (4.2), economy (4) and political parties (4). On the other hand, the least corrupt are the Church and NGOs (2.6 average grade each) and the military (2.8).

The citizens of Croatia are not all that convinced about the effectiveness of Government anti-corruption policies and activities. Full 62 percent believes those policies to be ineffective, while 25% believe the opposite. Also, 40% of the polled citizens believe that corruption in Croatia will grow over the next three years, with 28% believing that it will decrease.

- I hope that the future Government will establish the bodies for prevention of corruption and monitoring and sanctioning of illegally acquired wealth � says Zorislav Antun Petrović, TIC President, explaining that the Global Barometer aims to point to the governments on which areas they should focus their anti-corruption activities.

In the region, healthcare is perceived as the most corrupt (average grade of 4.1 on regional level), political parties (3.8) and the judiciary (3.9). The most optimistic are the citizens of Macedonia, with highest percentage (65%) of citizens presenting confidence in Government anti-corruption activities, while citizens of B&H (59%) and Kosovo (62%) beliving that those activities are largely ineffective.

More than one half of Macedonian citizens (53%) believe that corruption levels will decrease over the next three years, followed by Kosovo, where 52% of the populations shares that view. The most pessimistic, on the other hand, are the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where seven in ten citizens (69%) expect for corruption levels to grow.

For additional information and the full text of the Global Corruption Barometer, visit the website of Transparency International.