The overwhelming majority of Greeks believe that corruption goes unpunished and two in three Greeks believe corruption is “very important” and rarely punished, according to a public opinion poll by the National Transparency Authority (NTA) presented at the 1st Integrity Forum on Thursday.
Results were based on 777 questionnaires completed online between September 11 and November 30, 2021 by visitors to the NTA’s pavilion at the Thessaloniki International Fair, or by subscribers to NTA’s newsletter.
A total of 87% of those polled said the sectors most likely to involve corruption include public works & state procurements (62%), the political system (59%), and mass media (48%). These were followed by municipalities & regions (39%), the justice system (21%), provision of medical services in the National Health System (18%), construction licensing (14%), services imposing the law (11%), the public sector (9%), and business licensing (3%).
The number of people terming the issue of corruption “very important” was 67%, while 30% called it “fairly significant”.
People asked “Do you believe that during emergency/natural catastrophe/pandemic times the opportunities for corruption rise?” responded as follows: Yes (80%), No (13%), and No Answer (7%).
Greek citizens were also asked to pick up to four responses on what they believed were the reasons for corruption. NTA tabulated the results as follows: Corrupt individuals not being punished (85%), parties & clientelism (73%), lack of transparency in state organizations (43%), government indifference (40%), absence of a clear legal/regulatory frame (34%), inadequate use of new technologies in state/citizen relations (27%), human greed (25%), ignorance of citizens’ rights before public administration (20%).
“Generally speaking,” 87% of those asked believe that corruption is rarely punished or never, another 10% thought very often/often, and the remaining 3% chose “Don’t know/No answer”.
Asked “What would prevent you from reporting corruption?”, people answered as follows: “No protection for whistleblowers” (50%), “It’s hard to prove what happened” (22%), “I’m afraid of repercussions” (17%), “It would make no difference” (6%), “Everyone knows about these affairs and nobody does anything” (6%).
The Authority also asked participants to name up to three institutions they would trust the most if they wanted to go ahead and report incidents of corruption. Their answers were: the National Transparency Authority (65%), justice/courts/prosecutors (51%), the Ombudsman (49%), relevant European Union services (33%), police (19%), mass media (10%), NGOs (4%), unions (2%), Citizen Services Centers (or KEP, 1%), MPs/mayors/city councils (1%).
Asked whether they knew of the NTA, a total of 78% of those questioned said yes, and the remaining 22% said no.
Finally, NTA asked those questioned on their impressions after being informed of the agency’s actions. A total of 71% said they were “rather positive” about its actions, 4% were “rather negative”, another 24% said “Neither”, and the remaining 1% said Don’t know/No Answer. [via newsbomb.gr]
ROFLOL
My cousin stole/rewrote my aunts will she was leaving to me, he collaborated with a crooked notary.
I paid a lawyer 10K to chase it, he met with him, never gave will to graphologist as promised, lawyer was a crook too, first one came up on the net with fancy web site. Guy looked like a pot bellied weasel in a harem.
Gave it to another experienced lawyer was referred to, he sought extravagant funds and claimed would take long time after exposing old layer lied about graphologist. I gave up at that point and I get anxiety attacks at the mere thought of Greece now and my grandfather was a high ranking officer from Crete, first one out of the trenches, who’s men literally slept at his feet…and they never did erect a statue of him on his horse at Kolokotronis square as they were suppose to either.
Corruption and yet they have great laws. My cousin enjoys her villa after slandering her after she died only to praise her after rewriting her will. For all the good great laws do its a strange anomaly in Greece from cab drivers to pick pockets to love clubs to name it.
No one loves Greece more than me, but the corruption I find truly unbelievable and breathtaking, in light of its great laws, and such great emphasis on ethics during socialization as I came form an excellent family.
..and I can add, that it will NEVER change unfortunately. It’s programmed into the system