Macedonians Top Region In Bribes League

A survey by Macedonia's State Statistical Office placed the country on top of the region in terms of the amount of bribes people pay on average each year.

The survey forms part of a wider regional survey conducted the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC.

Macedonians are asked for, or offer, bribes 5.9 times on average a year, the study reveals. The professionals most subjected to bribery are doctors, police and teachers. People also pay bribes for cadastre services.

“In about a third of bribe cases, the citizens themselves initiate the payment. People think that bribes will make jobs easier and speed up procedures,” the head of the Statistical Office, Blagica Novkovska, said in Skopje on Friday.

Of all the countries in the region that participated in the UNODC regional survey, Albanians pay least bribes, 43 euros per year, on an average of 4.1 times per year.

Citizens of neighbouring Kosovo pay an average of 179 euros per year in bribes but they lead the chart in terms of the number of bribes they pay on average - 10.2 per year.

Serbs pay 165 euros per year in bribes and they do so 4.6 times a year on average. Montenegrins pay 233 euros a year, an average of 5.9 times a year.

Croats pay an average of 280 euros a year in bribes 3.6 times a year. People in Bosnia and Herzegovina pay 112 euros per year and do so an average of 5.4 times a year.

The Macedonian survey was conducted on a representative sample of 3,500 respondents aged 18 to 64. It was conducted simultaneously with the other countries of the Western Balkans and was co-financed by the European Commission.

UNDOC finds that corruption in the Western Balkans remains a major concern among people in the region. The issue ranks third in the list of most pressing issues after unemployment and poverty, well ahead of security and education.