TI: Corruption in Czech Republic worse than in Russia, Polan

Brussels/Prague, Dec 7 (CTK) - Corruption in the Czech Republic is much worse than in other European Union countries and higher than in India, Pakistan and the Philippines, according to a poll carried out by the Gallup Institute for Transparency International (TI).

According to its results, 17 percent of Czechs or members of their households said that they gave some sort of bribe in the past 12 months. In Poland, 5 percent of respondents said they had offered a bribe in the past 12 months, while 8 percent did so in Russia. The EU average is 2 percent. The average was 17 percent in South America and 7 percent in Asia. Corruption rates were lower in the Philippines (16 percent), Pakistan (15 percent), India (12 percent) and Thailand (10 percent)

According to the poll, 40 percent of Czechs believe the government is not effective in fighting corruption. Twenty-one percent believe the government actually encourages corruption.

"The results in the Czech Republic reflect a long-standing unsatisfactory situation as regards the introduction of the government's systemic measures of the fight against corruption. The respondents' 40-percent lack of confidence in the government's measures is one of the worst in the world," said Adriana Krnacova, director of Czech TI.

Czech respondents consider the police and political parties as the most corrupt, according to the poll.

Interior Minister Ivan Langer (Civic Democrats, ODS) has said that the government approved a plan to fight bribery at the end of October which includes measures aimed at preventing corruption, revealing it and punishing it. The ODS draft programme for the new government makes the fight against corruption one of the cabinet's top priorities.

According to the ODS, widespread corruption is the result of an ineffective and non-transparent civil service, frequent conflicts of interests, poor law enforcement and the lack of effective anti-corruption measures.

The Global barometer of corruption is a public opinion poll that asks respondents about their personal experience with corruption. This year's poll, the fourth in a row, surveyed 60,000 respondents from 62 countries.

Source:http:praguemonitor.com