|
Victimization study in Budapest
A study by Gallup-UNICRI (United Nations Interregional Crime
Research Institute) showed that 9% of Budapest-resident respondents
reported that they encountered corruption last year; more
than twice as many as the 4% recorded by UNICRI in in their
1996 study about 1995. The people who were most often bribed
(or offered bribes) by Budapest respondents were police officers
health care workers and managers in the private sector.
see figure!
However
compared with the 9% of respondents who encountered
corruption only 0.2% of respondents (1% of those directly
concerned) reported the occasion to the police.
Gallup Hungary has conducted this survey in March 2000. The
survey was based on telephone interviews with a representative
sample of Budapest residents aged over 16 (random sample
N. 1513). The questionnaire used in the research project details
many crimes
but the study contains parts having relevance
to corruption only.
Corruption is judged in different ways according to the area
in focus. About three-quarters of the population 71% !!! think
that physicians and nurses have to be offered gifts in return
for their services. Over half the population think that bribery
is necessary in order to get things arranged in the private
sector. Then come the police
indicated by 46% of respondents.
This puts the police in third place
but if we leave out the
medical professions on account of the peculiar conditions
under which they operate
the police take the first place
among public employees. They are followed - at least according
to one-third of the population - by customs officers
municipal
officials
supervision authority officials
municipal councillors
and Members of Parliament
ministry officials and inland revenue
officers. One fifth of the population consider court officials
school teachers and university professors corrupt. This means
that regardless of their job one fifth of the population considers
everyone corrupt.
see figure!
The general public's judgments about corruption appear to
correspond to reports based on personal experience
but on
a much larger scale; that is
respondents believe that corruption
is present in different fields in much the same order as in
actual cases
but the actual amount of such corruption is
thought to be much higher than the measured rate suggests.
It is interesting to note that although a fifth of the respondents
believe that court officials have to be bribed to perform
their duties properly
our study did not come up with a single
experience-based report of bribery or corruption actually
taking place in court.
Our basic definition of corruption was "the act of giving
or receiving money in return the performance of an obligation"
but there are many other ways interpreting or defining the
phenomenon. Only one fifth of the population consider tipping
as a form of corruption and fewer than one person in three
considers it corrupt to give a gratuity to a doctor. Only
half the population consider it corrupt for a civil servant
or executive to accept a small gift from clients. However
there is a general agreement to condemn cases of bribery which
concern traffic offences
state procurement contracts
job-allocations
and organized crime.
(Gallup Hungary
September 2000)
| 
