In Montenegro, two-thirds of citizens believe that corruption is a part of everyday life, and they consider stricter legal penalties and their equal application as a way to solve this problem.
This was announced at the press conference of the Center for Civic Education (CGO) and the Centre for Monitoring and Research (CeMI) on the occasion of the presentation of the findings of the public opinion survey on corruption at the local level, which was conducted by IPSOS Strategic Marketing for the purposes of the project "Put corruption in the museum!" , from February 29 to March 7, 2020, on a sample of 1,060 adult respondents.
Public policy researcher at the Centre for Monitoring and Research (CeMI), Nina Kecojevic, said that citizens of Montenegro recognize different types of corruption.
"The largest number of respondents (89 percent) recognize bribery of professors and police officers as a corrupt practice, while a less recognizable type of corruption refers to the use of acquaintances with administrative officials for the purpose of issuing certain documents," stated Kecojevic.
"Three quarters of citizens believe that corruption is a part of everyday life." Almost every other citizen believes that this could be changed by joining the European Union, as well as by increasing the salaries of civil servants," said Kecojevic.
She said that seven out of ten citizens believe that both parties are equally responsible for bribery, while a third even in some cases justify corruption.
"Nevertheless, the research findings indicate that these perceptions are widespread to a much lesser extent than three years ago," stated Kecojevic.
According to her, citizens perceive that corruption is most prevalent in health care and political parties, then in the Administration for Inspection Affairs, the Customs Administration, the Police Administration, then the Prosecutor's Office, the media, the judiciary and the Government. Citizens see international organizations and non-governmental organizations as least susceptible to corruption.
"Compared to the period three years ago, political parties, the Directorate for Inspection Affairs, the Tax Administration and local self-government bodies show slightly better results," she explained.
"Almost every tenth citizen would be ready to pay if someone from state institutions asked for a bribe, while 27 percent of them state that they would report the case to the competent authority." Citizens generally believe that receiving bribes at the local and state level takes place equally. "Compared to the period three years ago, corruption at the local level is recognized to a significantly lesser extent," said Kecojevic.
Speaking about party ties, Kecojevic said that almost 60 percent of citizens believe that there is no difference between the local and state levels, stating that a larger number of citizens believe that party ties are used more at the state than at the local level.
She said that the majority of citizens state that they are not aware of a single case of bribery in their area, noting that the share of these citizens is significantly lower than three years ago, while the share of those who, in rare cases, were forced to give a gift or do a favor grew up.
"Citizens see the absence of sanctions, difficulty in obtaining services through regular channels, low wages and impunity for corruption as the main reasons for accepting bribes," concluded Kecojevic.
Program coordinator at the Center for Civic Education (CGO), Mira Popovic, said that, compared to the previous survey, a greater level of familiarity of citizens with the work handled by the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (APC) is noticeable.
"Nevertheless, it should be emphasized that close to half of our citizens think that the main activity of APC is the prosecution of corruption cases, although this percentage is significantly lower than in our survey from 2017. In addition to this, prevention and education in the fight against corruption are often mentioned, as well as disciplinary punishment of discovered cases of corruption as an activity of the APC," said Popovic.
She said that a third of the citizens evaluate the work of the APC negatively, only 15 percent give it a positive evaluation, and more than a third have no opinion.
"Compared to 2017, the number of those who have a negative assessment of the work of ASK has significantly decreased, as well as the number of those who take a neutral position, and the number of those who are undecided has increased," said Popovic.
"The work of the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) in the fight against corruption is negatively evaluated by two fifths of citizens. "Compared to 2017, there was a decrease in the number of those who negatively and neutrally evaluate the work of SDT in this area, but the number of those without a clear position has increased," said Popovic.
She pointed out that two fifths of citizens negatively evaluated the work of the State Audit Institution (SAI) in the fight against corruption.
"Citizens are divided on whether they would report a case of corruption." Compared to 2017, there was a significant decrease in those who would report a case of corruption, and when it comes to the institutions with which they would do so, they singled out APC and the Police Directorate, with the Police Directorate being significantly less cited as a choice compared to the survey from 2017," explained Popovic.
As the reasons why citizens would not report corruption, as Popovic said, citizens state that it is the state's job to detect corruption, "and that they do not believe that reporting alone would lead to any effect, which is also supported by the finding that the vast majority of citizens (72 percent) had not heard of a case of corruption in their area that was ruled in favor of the injured party".
In the event that citizens can report corruption anonymously, as she said, half of them state that they would inform the authorities.
"Over two-fifths of citizens believe that corruption at high and low levels is equally problematic, while a third points out that the bigger problem is corruption that takes place at a high level, in the political and business elite," said Popovic.
She said that citizens see stricter legal penalties and their equal application as the most successful methods for solving the problem of corruption.
"When it comes to the local level, the citizens' opinion about the responsibility of the behavior of the heads of the municipal administration in the municipality where they live is polarized, with a slightly higher number of those who believe that they behave responsibly. At the same time, over two fifths of citizens believe that the local administration in their municipality is transparent," concluded Popovic.
The research is part of the project "Let's place corruption in a museum!", which CGE is implementing in partnership with the NGO Centre for Monitoring and Research (CeMI), NGO Bonum from Pljevlja, NGO UL-Info from Ulcinj and NGO Za Druga from Petrovac, in cooperation with the Agency for the prevention of corruption, with the support of the EU Delegation in Montenegro and with the co-financing of the Ministry of Public Administration.