November 17 (SeeNews) - The citizens of eight countries in Southeastern Europe (SEE) define corruption as one of three biggest problems of their states, according to a new Transparency International survey.
The respondents could choose from a list of key issues including the economy, unemployment, crime, immigration, health, education and corruption.
Citizens of Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Kosovo see corruption or bribery as one of the main problems facing the country that the government should address, Transparency International said in its Global Corruption Barometer published on Wednesday.
The NGO's report was co-funded by the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development of the European Union. It was conducted via face-to-face and telephone surveys of nearly 60,000 people across 42 countries in Europe and Central Asia.
According to the research data, Moldova tops the list of SEE countries in three categories - most citizens defining corruption being among the three biggest problems facing the nation; unsuccessful results of fighting corruption, and share of households which paid a bribe for accessing basic services.
About 42% of all respondents in Moldova say that at least one member of their household has paid a bribe in the last 12 months. Albania and Romania followed with 34% and 29%, respectively.
Moldovan citizens' perception of government efforts to fight corruption was defined as 'bad' by 84% of respondents. In SEE, Bosnia and Slovenia followed by 83% and 77% of respondents with similar answers.
The share of those who rate their government performing 'badly' at fighting corruption in government was 67% in Kosovo, 57% in Croatia, 54% in Bulgaria and 45% in Serbia.
In terms of perception of corruption levels for members of parliament, 76% of respondents from Moldova said that most or all members of parliament are corrupt. Elsewhere in SEE region, Albania and Bosnia followed with 55% and 54% of their citizens being of the same opinion, respectively. Of the same opinion were 46% of respondents in Kosovo, 41% in Bulgaria, 28% in Serbia and 28% in Croatia.