Volume of bribes given in Moldova reaches 516 million lei in 2019 - survey

Chisinau, 14 February /MOLDPRES/ - The estimated volume of bribes given reached 516 million lei in 2019. As much as 319.4 million lei of this money was given by residents and 197.3 million lei – by economic agents. The sum of the bribes offered in more fields has significantly increased in the last years, according to data by a survey on the evaluation of the impact of the National Strategy of Integrity and Anticorruption for 2017-2020 (SNIA), carried out by the CBS-Research Centre of Social Studies and Marketing, at an order by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).    

According to the participants in the survey, corruption remains a serious problem and the public agents are, in general, not sanctioned for the lack of ethics and professional integrity. The data of the research also shows that only 7 per cent of the respondents from the residents and 4.7 per cent from economic agents recognized that they had resorted to informal payments in the last year. Among the population, a person gave bribe, on average, 5.4 times per year (against 3.7 times in 2017) and in case of an economic agent – 3.5 times (against 6.1 times in 2017).  

In 2019, the value of the informal payments in money varied between 50 lei and 20,000 lei both in case of economic agents and of residents. At the same time, the population’s level of intolerance to corruption was enhanced. Thus, about 62 per cent of the residents and 83 per cent of the enterprises deem as unacceptable any situations of corruption and say that they do not accept giving bribe, no matter the situation and the personal benefit.   

The survey’s data also shows that about 73 per cent of the respondents are aware that bribery entails the punishment of both sides involved. On average, about 87 per cent of the survey’s respondents said that, if facing such situations, they would probably report corruption acts at anticorruption agencies by various means.  

The public agents who participated in the opinion poll said that the low salaries from the public sector and the mentality to give and receive bribe were the main reasons for the corruption.  

The research was carried out based on a national representative opinion poll for the following target groups: the general population with the age of 18 years and more, on a sample of 1,120 people, with an error margin of +/- 3%; economic agents on a sample of 506 enterprises, with an error margin of +/- 4.5%;  public agents from the central public administration (ministries, agencies), district and local public administration, on a sample of 606 respondents, with an error margin of +/- 4%.    

The data of the survey was selected on the period 10 July – 13 September 2019. The study was made within a project titled, Fight against corruption through strengthening Moldova’s integrity. The project is implemented by UNDP, in cooperation with the National Anticorruption Centre, with the support of the Norwegian Foreign Affairs Ministry.