Poll shows people often offer bribe and presents to judges and use personal contacts to solve problems

66% of the respondents of a survey said that the people resort to personal contacts and to offering bribe and gifts to judges in order to solve problems with the law. 72% of those polled said they would prefer to pay higher fees officially in courts. The opinion poll was carried out in Anenii Noi and Ialoveni districts and was presented in Chisinau on January 15, Info-Prim Neo reports. The survey was conducted by the Social-Rural Initiative public association as part of the ‘Anticorruption Partnership and Campaign to Promote Anticorruption Efforts’ project. According to the poll, 43% of those questioned admitted that in order to solve the cases one’s favor bribe is offered to intermediates, 37% said that bribe is given to lawyers, while 15% - directly to judges. Only 35% of the respondents in Anenii Noi and 32% of the respondents in Ialoveni said that they offered bribe voluntarily in court. 45% of those polled said that the average bribe paid to judges is 5,000-10,000 lei, while 33% said the size of bribe dependents on the case. The study also shows that the low salaries, pressure exerted by the superiors, shortcomings in the legislation, lack of transparency and the non-punishment of the persons to blame are among the major causes of corruption. “Special attention should be paid to the insurance of transparency of trials. This way, the level of corruption could be essentially reduced,” sociologist Nicolae Sali considers. “The report reveals the real situation because it represents the people’s opinion,” said Sandu Alexandru, judge at the Ialoveni Court. Yet, he is not concerned about the results of the research because the project for the first time separates the payments for legal assistance services (lawyer) from the payments for the court. The judge is sure that most of the sums paid to intermediaries do not get to judges. “Corruption in courts would be reduced when the legal practice is clearly defined and the judges are adequately paid so that the members of their families do not live below the subsistence level. In fact, it depends on the moral courage of every judge, civil servant, Sandu Alexandru considers. The poll covered a sample of 300 persons and was carried out in two stages: July-August and October-November 2008. The project that closes on February 15 included public debates involving jurists, people with legal experience, members of the civil society and civil servants from the districts of Ialoveni and Anenii Noi. There was carried out an awareness raising campaign that included distribution of informative materials, talk shows on the radio and publication of informative materials in the print media. These activities were aimed at informing the population. “The people do not know much about a trial, its legal stages. Therefore, they encounter difficulties when involved with the court and often become a victim of manipulation,” said project coordinator and director of the Social-Rural Initiative Maria Brodesco. “This project pleads the interests of the people so that they are informed about how to combat corruption. Form our viewpoint, it is not enough to monitor the steps taken by the Government to combat corruption. It is important to make the people aware so that they realize the damage caused by corruption to the development of the country,” said Liliana Palihovici, AED grant coordinator manager. The project was launched in February 2008 and is implemented with the assistance of the Strengthening Civil Society Monitoring Capacity in Moldova Program, benefiting from the grant offered by the U.S. Government through the Millennium Challenge Corporation. It is managed by the USAID. SCSMCM is carried out by the Academy for Educational Development (AED).