The new report “Global Corruption Barometer (GCB)” of Transparency International, a network in which Kosovo Democratic Institute is also a member of, finds that two-thirds of people in Kosovo rank corruption as one of the biggest problems in the country.

The report, which was conducted in 42 countries in Europe and Central Asia, has ranked Kosovo as the third in the list in terms of citizen opinion that corruption is one of the three biggest problems facing the country. Similar figures, 67% of respondents to this report, believe that the Government is not doing a good job in fighting corruption.

The data provided by the Barometer serve as the most accurate measurements of the degree the bribery and corruption are spread in a country. For this reason this data is used by the World Bank and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

KDI’s representatives, through a press conference today presented the results of this barometer.

 

“In the region, Kosovo has particularly low levels of bribery by only 10%, and although there is still room for improvement, it shows that our country has managed to control bribery in the public sector much better than other countries. This phenomen is more prevalent in Albania (34%) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (27%)”, said Artan Canhasi from KDI.

In terms of state leadership’s involvement in corruption, respondents in Kosovo believe that 46% of government officials and members of parliament are involved. Meanwhile, the highest belief of noninvolvement in the corruption practices belongs to religious leaders followed by the Kosovo Police.

“The fact that 42% of respondents answered ‘agree’ to the question ‘Can ordinary people make a difference”, says a lot about civic awareness on the importance of reporting corruption. In addition, the answer of 50% by the responders who say they feel obliged to report corruption, is a very promising result of the high mobilization of the citizen to report the corruption”, said Majlinda Kurti, Project Coordinator with KDI project that provides legal assistance to victims and reporters of corruption.

From questions included in the survey, citizens were asked for their opinion on “Why people do not report corruption”, and the main reason identified by them is “the fear of the consequences.” “For this reason KDI has the Office for Legal Advice for victims and reporters of corruption. Through this service we advise citizens on how and where to report without personal consequences”, said Kurti. This can be done directly at the KDI’s offices, or at the toll free number 0800 77 777.

Otherwise, the Global Corruption Barometer, was conducted in Kosovo during the period from December 2015 to March 2016, with a total of 1 thousand 500 respondents. Previous similar measurement in our country was made in 2013.

 The full report can be found at the following link:

 

 

https://www.kdi-kosova.org/publikime/91-2016-11-16-gcb-europe-and-central-assia.pdf