“According to the corruption index, Croatia has taken 67th place out of 146 countries, which indicates that our country is becoming more and more corrupt each year,” commented the president of Transparency International Croatia, Zorislav Antun Petrović. The recently released world rankings, according to the index which measured perceived corruption, reveals the rankings of countries according to the extent of corruption among state officials and politicians. In fifteen different surveys, several thousand bankers, analysts, politicians and other businesspeople from throughout the world were questioned.

“This survey does not include typical citizens, but instead the research is conducted among decision makers who could face corruption on a daily basis. It is for this reason that this global survey is very relevant. The creator and initiator of this research was Professor Johann Graf Lambsdorff from the Passau University in Germany. In 1995, he decided to combine the numerous surveys and studies on corruption, thus creating the world corruption rankings. As soon as it was released, it aroused a great stir, lead by Indonesia which was last on the list that year, that is, it was considered to be the most corrupt country. The situation was similar the following year when the former Argentine President Carlos Menem harshly verbally criticized the authors of the survey, however, soon his company went bankrupt, in part due to the suffocation of corruption there,” stated Petrović.

Croatia was first included in the world corruption rankings in 2000, when it took 77th place out of 99 countries, with a total of 2.7 points. Considering that the numerous of countries included increases every year, the ranking on the list is not a proper measure of corruption, as each country received points from 1 to 10, with 1 rated as the worst form of corruption and 10 is virtually ideal – a corruption free country. To date, only Finland has received 10 points, in 2001. This year, Finland is first again, with 9.7 points, followed by New Zealand, Denmark, Island, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Australia and Holland rounding out the top ten. On the other hand, the most corrupt country in the world was assessed to be Haiti, with only 1.5 points, with Bangladesh, Nigeria, Burma, Chad, Paraguay and Azerbaijan also in the bottom ten. This year’s result for Croatia was particularly uncomfortable, considering that the country dropped eight places, from last year’s result of 3.7 points to this year’s result of 3.5 points.

This research is conducted by distinguished analysts from the World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and several other very esteemed and influential institutions, on a study group of several thousand international business people. “The Croatian public and politicians should be even more concerned about this negative trend, as since 2001, we have constantly been sinking on this index, which means that we are losing the battle with corruption and that its levels are only increasing every year. The results released last week actually include the period from the end of 2002 to the end of 2003, which means that this poor trend could be attribute to the former Račan government. The reasons for Croatia’s decreasing position on the corruption perception index rankings could be sought in the poor reforms in the country, the non-passing of new laws, the small number of newly revealed, reported and prosecuted cases of corruption, as well as economic stagnation. When Croatia was first included in the survey in 2000, we received a score of 2.7. One year later, we had a very good result, jumping to 3.9 points. This could also be attributed to the change in government, as the world businesspeople and analysts obviously considered the then coalition government to be less corrupt, considering that coalition governments are usually thought to have an internal control mechanism among the parties, thereby leaving less room for corruption,” commented Zorislav Antun Petrović. However, two years later, international business circles assessed that the coalition government had done virtually nothing to break the corruption levels in Croatia, and that their actions were primarily of a declarative nature.

Transparency International Croatia warns that the results in the coming years will likely only be worse. “We believe that Croatia continues to fall on the corruption perception index as there is no political will to break corruption and no transparent decision-making mechanism. Corruption must be fought with actions, and not only words. The survey to be conducted for the current year will likely be influenced by this summer’s affair with Bechtel, as the practice of public tenders was changed in a shady manner to the practice of direct deals, which allows the possibility for “under the table” deals. If we add to this the way in which the entire situation was explained, it is virtually certain that this rating of corruption perception will be even worse. Another example that will impact the new research is the Conflict of Interest Act, in which the process of passing the Act is interesting in and of itself: it has already been in parliamentary procedure twice, in 2002 it literally disappeared from the procedure, and even the passed version of the Act does not show that the politicians have any desire to make their work transparent. With this, our MPs have made it quite clear what they think of any kind of control of politicians and the setting of clear and open rules which would prevent the spread of corruption. An excellent example of a non-transparent law was the former Transition Act, which virtually permitted the ‘sale of certain companies based at the discretion of the Management board of the Privatization Fund to friends, relatives or party colleagues. All the tenders for the granting of concessions are also similar, as there is no public insight into the decision making process, nor into the criteria for decision making,” stated Petrovic.

In response to the frequent comments that the rankings are not relevant as they do not measure true corruption, but only public perception which is always more or less exaggerated, Transparency International says, “the comparative statements on the level of corruption in various countries is difficult to base on concrete empirical numbers, such as for example the comparison of the number of charges filed and lawsuits. This information again does not include the true extent of corruption, but instead puts its emphasis on the quality of the prosecutor, courts or media in revealing corruption. One method is to compile comparative data based on the experience and perceptions of those people directly faced with corruption in individual countries.”

This corruption perception index plays an important role in business making decisions within the international business circles which helped to develop this study with their cooperation. For example, a potential investor will likely not decide to invest in a country wrought with corruption, or will perhaps opt for a neighbouring country with a lower corruption level in their potential investment plans. This year’s rankings do not benefit Croatia, considering that the neighbouring Slovenia is in 31st place with 6 points and Austria is in 13th place with 8.4 points, while we are much nearer to our eastern neighbours and increasingly distant from western countries, particularly EU Member States, which Croatia itself is striving to become.

Due to the negative results of this year’s index, Josip Kregar, member of the Management board of Transparency International Croatia, recently called for a revision of the National Program for Combating Corruption, and he called upon all the candidates running in the presidential elections to state which anti-corruption measures they will support. Considering that the index has only confirmed the opinions of the Croatian citizens who for years have considered bribes and corruption to be a perfectly normal way of doing business in state institutions, hospitals, the judiciary, police and other public offices, the Croatian government is faced with a clear task – to battle the ever increasing corruption in Croatia.