The survey was conducted among 1,000 respondents throughout Croatia, which was divided for this purpose into seven regions: Dalmatia, Karlovac and the Primorje region, northern Croatia, Posavina, Slavonia and Virovitica, Zagreb, and Istria.
Munir Podumljak of the Partnership for Social Development said that the list of the most corrupt institutions was topped by those that were supposed to be the pillars of the anti-corruption campaign, such as political parties, the national parliament and government, the judiciary, the police, the State Attorney's Office and inspection services.
Among the institutions regarded by the public as being the most corrupt also were local governments and municipal councils.
At the bottom of the list were religious communities with a corruption index of 5.25, the Office of the President of the Republic (4.56) and civil organisations (4.3).
The public perception of corruption in the health sector, the police and the judiciary was mostly based on the respondents' personal experience, while media reports played a crucial role in forming the public perception of corruption of the national parliament, political parties and the government.
Viewed by region, the highest average corruption perception index was in Slavonia, 6.95, and the lowest in northern Croatia, 6.13.
In all seven regions political parties, the judiciary and the health services were at the top of the list of the most corrupt institutions, while the Office of the President of the Republic and non-governmental organisations were seen as the least corrupt.
Respondents considered soliciting bribes and unlawful acquisition of wealth by officials as the most frequent forms of corruption and manipulation of confidential data as the least seldom form of corruption.
Cases such as when a civil servant receives a small gift for the timely completion of a case or when he or she delays a decision, when members of the ruling party are employed in public administration or failure to report corruption cases, were not regarded by respondents as corruption.