69% of the entrepreneurs consider corruption is widely spread in Moldova. About 45% said they gave bribe being forced to, while 35% gave bribe out of their own free will to obtain particular benefits. The Public Health Center, the Police and the Customs Service are among the most corrupt public institutions. The conclusions are contained in a study of the Institute for Development and Social Initiative “Viitorul” that was presented in a conference entitled “Corruption fighting in the Republic of Moldova: What can the business do?”, IPN reports.
According to the study, the main causes that favor corruption in business are related to the involvement of the political factor, the imperfect, ambiguous and interpretable legislation, direct contact with the public functionary, bureaucracy and incompetence of the administration and inefficiency of the law enforcement bodies. The businessmen prefer to solve the problem by “agreements” with bureaucrats. The unofficial ways usually take the form of money, contacts or relations, presents or pressure.
“Viitorul” executive director Igor Munteanu said an integral and democratic system is related not only to the state and governance, but also to the interests of the people and all the players that are interested in winning the fight against corruption. “Corruption is an instrument that is tolerated by the business sector. When the bureaucrats speak about their accomplishments or the Government’s results in fighting corruption, we surely have to look at these with approximation and see what is the business community’s reaction to these accomplishments reported by the authorities,” stated Igor Munteanu.
Most often the people give bribe during inspections carried out by competent state institutions. Bribe is given for obtaining licenses, authorizations and other permissive documents. The businessmen consider the public procurement process is very politicized and corrupt and only those who are politically affiliated can win tender contests. Even if almost 50% of those questioned said corruption hampers business doing in Moldova, about 80% didn’t complain to the competent bodies about the faced cases of corruption.
The authors of the study formulated recommendations designed to contribute to lower corruption in the business sector. The small companies are recommended to form associations and to jointly deal with the abuses of bureaucrats. It is recommended setting up functional one –stop shops where the business entity can benefit from all the services of an institution and integrating the information systems of different institutions.
The data within the study were collected by the Center for Sociological Investigations and Marketing “CBS-AXA” during April 19 – May 17. The study covered a sample of 511 businessmen.
