About 70 percent of Romanians say corruption has increased in last three years

Sixty seven percent of Romanians believe that the level of corruption has increased in the country over the past three years, reveals an Eurobarometer carried out in all the 27 EU member states last September, and published this February. The same perception was recorded in Cyprus, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Portugal. Moreover, 53 percent of Romanians say they are informed about the level of corruption in Romania.

The Eurobarometer further shows that 78 percent of Romanians think corruption in their country is more widespread that in other EU member states. Only Greeks outperform Romania by 2 percent.

Almost all respondents in Romania (96 percent) agree corruption is a major problem in Romania, and similar results came from Hungary, Cyprus and Portugal. Greece leads in this section, with 98 percent agreeing corruption is an issue.

The private sector remains clear at a perception level in Romania, only 17 percent of respondents saying bribery and abuse of power are practiced in private companies, a value similar to Poland.

Only 18 percent of Romanians say corruption doesn’t affect them in their daily life, the worst result in the EU. Greece and Cyprus followed with 27 percent and 36 percent.

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More than a quarter of Romanians have been asked or expected to pay a bribe, up 5 points from a similar survey carried out in 2009.
Romanian politicians are not doing enough to fight corruption according to 61 percent of respondents, and the Government fails to tackle the corruption issue according to 79 percent of respondents.

Only 1 percent of respondents trust trade unions to resolve corruption as complaints, a figure similar to Bulgaria. However, 2 percent of respondents in Poland, Romania and Slovenia would turn to politicians to complain about a corruption case.

Challenging transparency

Romania is perceived to be the third most corrupt state in the EU, only behind Greece, that ranks 1st and Bulgaria, according to the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) recently published by Transparency International at end-2011. Romania ranks 75th out of 183 states that have been included in the 2011 report, with a CPI of 3.6, similar to China.

Victor Alistar, executive director of Transparency International in Romania, told a conference on transparency organized this week by The British Romanian Chamber of Commerce and the Netherlands Romanian Chamber of Commerce that Romania is under the flag of an emergency situation.
“Lots of lobby actions from companies, not the best way to do business,  was mainly registered in Public Private Partnerships or for public procurement in different sectors,” said Alistar.

Steven van Groningen, CEO and president of Raiffeisen Bank, says corruption is a difficult topic in Romania.
“You lose contracts you shouldn’t be losing, you lose in court when you shouldn’t be losing,” said van Groningen, who is also president of the Foreign Investors Council (FIC).

However, the FIC president says there is more awareness for transparency, and the number of initiatives in this field has increased, especially from the Ministry of Justice.
“A prosecutor who abused his power will suffer consequences and this makes  me happy,” said van Groningen

Alistar said that we need a strong judiciary and a strong response from the business community in order to improve transparency. There is not much the EU can do according to Alistar, who thinks that the EU needs to provide good excuses when accepting countries that hadn’t been well prepared to enter the Union (i.e.Romania and Bulgaria).

The Raiffeisen CEO said the consultation process on legislation is weak: “We receive a draft on Monday and we have to make propositions by Friday, without any impact studies.”

Poor and less transparent

Van Groningen says the lack of transparency slows economic growth.
“The underlining problem is we are talking about the medium and long development of the country which is hampered by the lack of transparency,” the Raiffesisen CEO said.

Stephen D’Alessandro, managing director at CREDAL business consulting, told BR that very often the most simple process in Romania is made very complicated and you need someone else to do it, this being one of the main factors that frustrates foreign investors.

“More transparency will attract more investors that win projects in the quality of products and not acquaintances,” said D’Alessandro, who has been in Romania since 1992, currently involved in the electronics business.

“If you want to attract foreign investors the rule of the games has to be clear and less political involvement,” he adds.

Van Groningen said in Romania we only talk about big projects, involving lots of money where politicians can score, instead of focusing on the small things. Education and the concept of guilt can be effective weapons against corruption.

Ovidiu Posirca