Planning authority officials, particularly those who are directly involved in the granting of development permits, are perceived to be the most corruptible public officials, according to the results of a Eurobarometer survey that was published yesterday.
Asked to mention which public officials are most likely to accept a bribe in exchange for abuse of power, 53 per cent of the 500 Maltese participants who took part in the survey mentioned Mepa officials.
They were followed by political parties (52 per cent) and members of the judiciary (48 per cent).
61%
of respondents described corruption as being part of ‘Maltese culture’
The survey was conducted in Malta last March by Misco but results were published yesterday in conjunction with the first EU anti-corruption report.
The survey was released a week after a former Malta Environment and Planning Authority said he had “daily” political interference with decisions of enforcement against environmental abusers.
Asked whether they had personally experienced corruption in the previous 12 months, four per cent said they had to pay a bribe or that they knew someone who did.
However, the overwhelming majority, 71 per cent, said they did not do anything because either they thought “nothing would happen” or because “everyone knew about it”.
In general, the survey’s results show 83 per cent of respondents consider corruption to be a widespread problem in Malta (EU average 76 per cent), and 29 per cent said it affects their daily lives (EU average 26 per cent).
According to the majority, corruption is not only a reality but is also on the increase.
Asked whether they felt that corruption had increased in the previous three years, 60 per cent responded positively (56 per cent in the EU) while only three per cent said that they had noticed a decrease.
Sixty one per cent of respondents described corruption as being part of ‘Maltese culture’.
In a separate Eurobarometer survey, specifically targeting the business community, 43 per cent of companies that competed for public contracts in the past three years said they believed that corruption prevented them from winning a tender (EU average 32 per cent).
Maltese respondents from the business sector perceive that a number of practices in the public procurement exercise result in it being tainted with widespread suspicion of corruption.
Forty eight per cent said they were sure some bidders are involved in the design of specifications, while 48 per cent said the selection is made on an unclear set of criteria.
More than half of businessmen (58 per cent) think there are conflicts of interest in bid evaluations while 64 per cent said tender specifications are tailor-made for particular companies.