The effects of implementing the Country Threshold Program (CTP) are not essentially felt by the population as yet, shows a research on the short-term impact of the CTP, compiled by Transparency International (TI) – Moldova and launched Thursday at Info-Prim Neo News Agency. “The results of the research are modest, taking into consideration those 24 million invested in combating and preventing corruption by the Millennium Challenge Corporation,” said Lilia Carasciuc, TI – Moldova's executive. However, one should take into account the short period of time – less than a year – and the fact that the activities in many sectors of the CTP have not ended yet, she explained. A part of the CTP's investments have had a direct impact in combating and preventing corruption; its effects can be felt only after a while. Since some of the questions refer to perception, the answers were influenced by the general feeling of comfort/discomfort of the interviewed. The error margin is 3% for households and 4.4% for businesspeople. Iana Spinei, an expert with TI – Moldova, says corruption has remained a key concern for two categories of respondents. 72% of businesspeople and 83.3% of households consider corruption to be one of the main problems in the development of the country/businesses. The weight of the interviewees considering that the scourge has widely spread has not changed essentially. It decreases slightly in the work of the Economic Crimes and Corruption Combating Center (ECCCC), medical entities and police. Slightly down is the number of people having bribed tax inspectors, police, and doctors. The situation keeps steady in other institutions. “Unfortunately the number of interviewed impelled to pay unofficially rose in all the CTP sectors,” said Iana Spinei. Households most often give unofficial payments to customs officers, to register cars or get driver licenses, to the police and doctors. The businesspeople most often unofficially pay doctors, customs officers, the police, to get their cars technically tested and in education. The estimated amount of unofficial payments paid by businesspeople is set at 260 million lei, dropping 50 million in comparison with the previous poll. Households unofficially paid some 630 million lei, that is 40 million lei more than unveiled by the previous poll. The TI – Moldova experts explain the hike by inflation. The bribes paid to police and doctors are reported to grow, while the payments customs and tax inspectors dropped. The number of the respondents having heard of the CTP surged from 26.7% to 34.3% among households and from 35% to 52.1% among entrepreneurs. The media's credibility rose considerably: the number of the interviewed trusting media reports on corruption grew from 40.3% to 50% among households and from 38.5% to 55.2% among businesspeople. The people say they are less prone to pay unofficially: the respondents acknowledging they are ready unofficially in difficult situation fell from 80.5% to 76.5% among businessmen and from 75.9% to 65.4% among households. “Despite the slight drop, it's alarming that the index keeps rather high,” Iana Spinei said. At the same time, the populace does not realize enough the costs of corruption: the number of the ones thinking poverty is the main aftereffect for corruption went down from 60.1% to 56.8% among households and from 59.9% to 57.1% among entrepreneurs. The level of trust in the CTP institutions is slightly dropping, the most credible institutions being the ECCCC squad, the tax inspectorates and the medical institutions. The professionalism of the employees in the CTP institutions is also dropping. The research has been carried out in the the Strengthening Civil Society Monitoring Capacity in Moldova (SCSMCM) Program, implemented by the Academy for Educational Development (AED) with technical assistance from the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX). The SCSMCM program is funded by the Millennium Challenges Corporation (MCC) and managed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) within the framework of the Country Threshold Program (CTP) for Moldova. The poll focused on 6 key sectors of the CTP, as 1,060 households and 503 businesspeople were quizzed last October.