The survey, commissioned by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Survey and Statistics Section, was carried out by the Zagreb-based Institute of Economics in the summer of 2010 among 3,000 respondents in Croatia. The project was financed by the European Commission CARDS Regional Action Programme 2006 with the support of the Norwegian government.
The administration corruption is not dramatic in Croatia, and measures should be directed towards raising the anti-corruption awareness so as to change the attitude on unacceptable forms of conduct, according to one of conclusions of the survey.
The project leader Jelena Budak said today that 11 percent of Croatians, who had contacts with the public sector from July 2009 to July 2010, were involved in some forms of corruption-related situations.
As many as 45 percent of those polled believe that corruption was on the rise in the period from July 2007 to July 2010, with 10 percent of those polled believing that corruption was being reduced, notably in the judiciary (13 percent), Budak said.
The highest corruption rates were reported in Dalmatia and the area of the capital of Zagreb, while corruption rates below the average were reported in the area of Rijeka and Gorski Kotar.
A half of bribes were presents to doctors and nurses which people gave as a sign of gratitude for healthcare services and which they did not regard as bribery.
Croatians are also prone to give money, usually up to HRK 500, to police officers and staff in charge of allowing the registration of their cars in order to avoid higher fines.
Budak described as worrisome the data that as many as 16 percent of respondents said that they had used bribes to get jobs in the public sector in the last three years.
Only two percent of citizens reported their corruption-related experiences to official institutions, she added.