Corruption costs billions

Corruption costs Romania billions of dollars a year, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which claimed that foreign direct investment of $1.3 billion in 2001 was one-third of what the country could attract, the “Global Corruption Report 2003” published by Transparency International shows. The report also says the presence of foreign investors in Southeast Europe’s private sector can sometimes be a positive factor in controlling corruption because these relatively new actors do not form part of the traditional networks or parallel systems that operate there. “The lack of transparent legal and political systems has largely deterred foreign investors from deeper engagement in the region, however,” the report chapter analysing Southeast Europe reads. The document also specifies that the Foreign Investors Council of Romania acknowledges corruption as a major stumbling block to foreign investors in its ‘White Book’ of June 2002. ZF