Transparency International Turkey Announced the Results of Public Opinion Survey Titled “Corruption in Turkey: Why? How and Where?” by a Press Conference in April 27th. 2015, at Taxim Hill Hotel.
67% of respondents thinks corruption has worsened in the last two years…
Turkey chapter of Transparency International (TI Turkey), one of the world’s leading organization in fighting with corruption, announced the results of public opinion survey “Corruption in Turkey: Why? How and Where?” which has been conducted with participation of overall 2,000 people in all regions of Turkey between February 2015 and March 2015.
According to the results presented by the Chair of Board of Directors of TI Turkey, E. Oya Özarslan, 67% of the respondentsthinks that the level of corruption has scaled up in the last two years, 54% of them expect that the level will increase within the next 2 years. 55% of the respondents felt that the government’s effort in the field of anti-corruptionis ineffective. Immunity and impunity are perceived as the most dominant reasons of corruption.
Investigative journalist Nedim Şener elaborated on the results of the survey during the press conference and emphasized the penetrating effects of corruption on the culture and society and defined this state of art as alarming.
28% of the people said they had been asked to pay a bribe within the last 2 years. This percentage was lower (21%) in the Global Corruption Barometer 2013 – world’s largest public opinion survey on corruption by Transparency International –and it is much more higher than the percentages in EU average.
55% of the respondents found the efforts of government in fight against corruption ineffective. The findings of the survey point out that the major reason of the corruption (immunity and impunity) obstructs fight against corruption.
Immunity – Impunity and Politics – Business Relationshipare Prominent Reasons of Corruption
Following the top reason of corruption (immunity and impunity –with 8.14on a 10 point scale), politics – business relationship (7.97), procurement system (7.95) and media- business relationship (7.94) are perceived as dominant reasons of corruption.
This ranking also shows that private sector is perceived to be playing a considerable role in corruption. 61% of the respondents felts that private sector has effects on public operations and legal arrangements by paying bribe, which is an indicator supporting this argument.
Zeki Gündüz, Tax Services Leader of PwC Turkey and Board Member of TI Turkey, remarked that increase in corruption also affects investments and raises business operation costs.
Public procurement was one of the outstanding subjects in our survey. Procurement system ranks as 3rd in the list of the reasons of corruption and it ranks as 1st within the ranking of corruption in public operations (with 8.62 points on a 10 point scale). It is observed that respondents refer to a systemic reason of corruption rather than personal experiences and petty corruption.
While municipalities and political parties are perceived as the institutions most affected by corruption, bribery appeared as most prevalent in the municipalities.
Lack of political ethics law in Turkey causes inefficiency in auditing of political financing and in preventing conflict of interests. Moreover, lack of legal framework in regulating lobbying activities hampers monitoring of the impacts of politics on other fields. In line with examples appeared in recent years that politics has been used as an instrument for enrichment respondents also have a strong perception in that direction.
Another outstanding finding is that more than half of the respondents said that corruption allegations will negatively influence their voting preferences in the next election. Guest speaker economist/journalist Mustafa Sönmez highlighted during the press conference that corruption is becoming a serious problem due to the challenges in relation to division of power and strong influence of executive on the judiciary and legislative.
“Corruption culture” has been spreading by impunity…
The following question was asked to participants and 88% of them gave an answer as no: “Within the last year, if making improper payments or giving gifts is requested, have you ever made a legal complaint or report?”
When the reason behind was asked, 60% of participants stated that making a legal complaint would have no help. The result of the survey indicates that corruption in Turkey has become a problem which restrains access to justice and services from public to private sector. Impunity and the lack of rule of law have devastating impacts on fight against corruption.
For the results booklet of the survey in English, please click here:
