Transparency of Local Governments

1. A survey of local authority employees

Local authority employees of the municipalities of Óbuda, Érd, Békéscsaba, Paks and Kaposvár took part in the study. The questionnaires were completed anonymously and placed in the collecting box on a voluntary basis. More than 50% of the workers filled in questionnaires at each municipality: Békéscsaba (N = 92), Kaposvár (N = 129), Paks (N = 49), Érd (N = 80), Budapest, district III. (Óbuda) (N = 81).

The aim of the study was to explore the operation and integrity of local authorities, and the motivation and level of satisfaction of municipal employees in their place of work.

1.1. The municipality as a place of work

One of the key factors in being satisfied with one's place of work is having career and promotion opportunities. At the municipalities included in the study the vast majority of promotions are based on academic qualifications (64% of the cases), specific criteria (59%), rank, age (51%) and performance (50%). Nearly half (45%) of the municipal employees believe that promotion is decided fairly. However, it is also true that on average one third of employees claim that local, internal or political factors play a decisive role in promotions.

One-fifth of municipal employees are fully satisfied with their work, and overall more of them are satisfied (62%) than not. Fewer employees are satisfied with their place of work with only every tenth worker being "fully satisfied", while every second respondent was "relatively satisfied" (54%). Only about a quarter of them were "satisfied" with allowances and salaries (26%, 19%), and very few were "fully satisfied" ( 9-7%).

One-third of the respondents (31%) said that it is better to work in the public sector than in the private sector, but a quarter of them (26%) claimed that the opposite is true. Nearly half (43%) are neutral about whether it is better to work in the private or the public sector.

The key factor in choosing a civil servant's or executive career is job security (61%). One-half the respondents consider the commitment to public service (52%) and the opportunity to learn (47%) important.

Fewer people claimed that working for the local authority means social status (30%), or that opportunities outside the public sector are limited (28%).

A lower percentage of municipal workers who responded also took into consideration the following criteria in choosing their job:

• they can help family members in official proceedings (15%)
• wide-ranging miscellaneous allowances are available (17%)
• experience can be used in the private sector (14%)
• possibility of receiving unofficial or semi-official moneys (2%)

Significant differences between local authorities emerged over in two criteria:

• Employees in the municipality of Érd put much greater emphasis on the opportunity for learning, while it was an insignificant factor in the municipality of Budapest district III.
• However, a wide range of miscellaneous allowances had much greater importance at the Budapest district III. municipality than at other municipalities.

1.2. The local authority as a public institution

The respondents said that in three-quarters of cases involving direct contact with members of the public, only the relevant statutory regulations play a decisive role in judging applications (78%), that equal judgment is ensured for each and every client (73%), and that proceedings are not biased (72%). According to municipal workers 6 out of 10 (61%) of clients look for loopholes. The desirability of avoiding official forms in proceedings is also supported by the fact that, according to employees, in a quarter of all cases it is more advantageous to avoid the official procedure and seek a fast and easy solution, and in one third of cases there are clients who enjoy priority in judgment.

Typically, in nearly half (44%) of all cases, official proceedings are less complicated for people who know somebody at the office.

According to just over half the respondents, institutions impose fair (60%) and strict (58%) systems for checking on their own employees.

For a quarter (25%) of the respondents unofficial information obtained in municipalities can be used for personal benefit, and for one fifth (20%) of them municipal employees use local authority equipment for their own purposes.

78% of respondents think that "informal, unwritten rules" operate in at least 80% of municipal proceedings.

Municipal employees give an "excellent" grade to one-third (37%) of services provided by the municipality to the public. However, this figure is by no means the same for all municipalities. At Érd it is as low as 30%; in the other municipalities it is around 40%.

According to municipal employees gratuities are payed in one-fifth (20%) of proceedings about issues which lie within of authority of the municipality. This is somewhat less than the equivalent figure from two years ago, they say, and is also lower than forecasts for 2002. see figure!

There are major differences between the five municipalities in their estimations of current levels of bribery:

Érd Bp. district III. (Óbuda) Kaposvár Békéscsaba Paks

28% 24% 18% 17% 16%

2. Transparency of Local Governments: the Municipal Government in Eyes of Citizens

The community survey was conducted via phone in the five cities we selected for the employer survey, namely at Békéscsaba (number of respondents 503), at Érd (516 citizen), Kaposvár (514 citizen), Óbuda (500 citizen), and Paks (488 citizen). In this mirror the self-perception of the Municipal Government employees with the opinion of citizens could be confronted.

The citizens of the five selected towns have rather positive than negative image on their Municipal Government. 52% of the respondents have a very positive or rather positive image about their local government, and only 6% reported very negative opinion on it. Splitting the sample on the five selected towns significant differences can be observed, mainly in case of Érd and Kaposvár. The percentages from the top two boxes (sum of the very positive and rather positive evaluations) illustrate these differences:

Békéscsaba Érd Kaposvár Óbuda Paks

47% 36% 69% 56% 54%

Despite the relative simplicity of problems the citizens are visiting the municipal government for, the quality of services received are considered very good or rather good only by 59% of the total respondents. Differences are present in this comparison, too, comparing the percentages from the top two boxes in the samples:

Békéscsaba Érd Kaposvár Óbuda Paks

46% 50% 71% 72% 68%

Quality of services received from government are generally evaluated worse by the citizens than the employees of the municipal government themselves. The next table compares the values from the top boxes given by the citizens on the evaluation of the public services with those value percentages the employees consider the Municipal Government ensure the excellent quality of the provided services:

In the survey we also asked if the citizens have any contact or relative working at Municipal Government who can help in fastening and arranging the citizens` problems, or can assure a privileged treatment for them. see figure!

This question is interesting comparing the considerations of the citizens if they have chance for getting "special treatment" splitting the data if they have any contact or relative at Municipal Government, or not. see figure!

The citizens perceive the clues that they would need to pay bribe for the officials of the Municipal Government in higher extent than they really pay it. In total 4% of the respondents felt that municipal officials expected them to pay bribe, but only 1% of them confess having paid it. Unique situation appears at Kaposvár where only 1% of the citizens feel they are expected to pay bribe, but 2% of them confessed they paid it - this suggest that in that case we can really talk about gratuity money or about little gifts of grateful clients. There are high differences among the average amount of paid by citizens: while in Paks the average bribe paid is as low as 475HUF, in Óbuda this amount reaches 28 582 HUF. see figure!

Regarding to the extent or the spread of the corruption in the five selected cities, 37%-48% of the citizens perceived it to be wide-spread in town. The highest value belongs to Békéscsaba, and the lowest ones to Paks and Óbuda. According to our respondents, the estimated average number of corrupted staff among 10 employees at municipal governments is around 3 and 4. It is interesting to remember that 50% of officials from Paks, 42% of employees from Óbuda and 58% of employees from Békéscsaba consider that locally there is no transaction, which would involve bribes for better services. see figure!

The GP`s (31%), the pediatricians (28%), the traffic policemen (12%), the Police - Traffic Department (11%), and the Customs Officers (7%) are considered being very likely bribed in hope of better service, or special treatment. This trend is present in all five samples, with slight differences.

We used attribute pairs for characterizing service and operation of the municipal governments - the same pairs of attributes we used in employee survey. Almost all respondents from the five towns considered the municipal government rather legal than illegal. The other attribute of the local government agreed upon by virtually every respondent is the fairness over unfairness. The following attributes are evaluated differently in the five surveyed towns. Just the totals of the total population: reliable (89%), on the fourth place committed (88%), followed by correct (87%), just (85%), quality (83%), equitable (78%), clear (74%), equal (74%), organized (73%), transparent (68%), flexible (47%), fast (41%) and compliant (26%).

Very interesting to capture trends of differences in the opinions of service providers and receivers: very saliently officials consider their services faster than their clients, while clients see the operation of municipal offices more organized that the employees do. Also: roughly half of the employees said that they treat cases generously, while about one in four citizen finds the local government compliant rather than strict. Very interesting result is that citizens are more likely to choose that the service they receive is "quality" service than the providers themselves.

(Gallup Hungary, October 2000)

Updated: 2001-06-06 13:01
© Hungarian Gallup Institute, The Gallup Organization