Corruption, a tax in disguise

More than 4 Romanian companies out of 10 say they are affected by the skewing of parliamentary votes to the advantage of private interests, a phenomenon which they deem as the severest form of corruption in the business environment, according to a series of diagnostic polls on the corruption in Romania, released by the World Bank’s office in Romania.

The runners up in the corruption chart affecting mainly the business climate are NBR’s mistakes (30% of the companies canvassed), high-level patronage, represented by the public officials hiring their friends and relatives in official positions (25% of the companies canvassed) and the contributions by private interests to political parties and electoral campaigns (24%), followed by influencing

Court decisions in civil suits and proceedings (20%), bribing civil servants to avoid paying taxes and charges (19%) and influencing the decisions of arbitrage Courts towards one party (13%).

The “Anticorruption in transition” and “Romania-Diagnostic surveys in corruption” reports, prepared by the World Bank and Management Systems International, partner of US Agency for International Development – USAID, at the request of the Romanian Government, are based on surveys conducted in co-operation with Urban and Regional Sociology Centre (CURS) throughout 2000. The surveys canvassed three samples: public officials, enterprises and households (more than 1,700 subjects)

In terms of their corruption experience, 38% of the public officials said they had been offered either presents or money over the previous 12 months, while 28% of the enterprises and 42% of the households stated they had been either indirectly suggested they should give bribe, offered bribe or just a small “token” to various people in official positions.

More than half of subjects from all three samples canvassed in the surveys feel that all or most of the Customhouse or Justice officers are corrupt.

The State Ownership Fund, the Parliament, the healthcare sector and the Police are regarded as overly corrupt, while the least corrupt are the Army, the postal and telecommunications services and the media, according to the respondents.

Where the companies are concerned, they most frequently had to deal with bribe at customs offices, at the offices issuing import and export licences, the traffic police, the construction permit granting services, the financial inspectors and the control services.

The companies included in the surveys feel the corruption phenomenon leads to lower foreign investments and slower development in the private sector, estimating that corruption is ultimately a tax in disguise paid by firms.