Countering Corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina:

2001-2011

Ruslan Stefanov and Denitza Mantcheva,Center for the Study of Democracy

Sarajevo, June 2012

Introduction

• Who is CSD? What do we do in the area of anti-corruption

• How did we come at the idea of this report?

• What does the report say?

What we did…

•Regional surveys carried out in BiH in 2001 & 2011

•Covered the 10 cantons of FBiH, the entity of RS and the Brčko District

•Used the methodology of the Corruption Monitoring System

•Information collected on:• Public attitudes toward corruption• Identification of different types of corrupt behavior• Personal experience and involvement in corrupt practices • Opinions of the level & scope of corruption; Spread of

corruption among different occupations & institutions• Corruption-related expectations, etc.

How to Interpret

•To breed, corruption requires the existence of four components: 1) public officials; 2) discretionary power; 3) abuse of public power; and 4) private gains for officials

•Different manifestations of these components form the types, levels, spheres, and mechanisms for corruption

•Corruption manifests itself through the interactions between public sector & citizens and private business à 2 basic types: • Large-scale (political) corruption - involves top state officials,

politicians, and business people; entails the allocation of substantial resources;

• Petty corruption – involves lower-level public officials and refers to the daily interactions between them & citizens and businesses; more widespread; associated with smaller payments and a system of favors/gifts

The Corruption Monitoring System

• Focus on tracking the dynamics (rather than the size) of corruption - i.e. how is corruption evolving

• Shows both the structure & dynamics of corruption• Is compatible: uses internationally established methods &

indicators• dynamic comparability of info. between European countries &

coherence with UN victimization approach• Reliance on diverse info. sources; avoids the fallacy of monitoring

perceptions only• Easy to understand à facilitates public presentation of results

• indexes summarize the most important corruption indicators to reduce the multidimensionality of corruption, as a social phenomenon, to a limited set of indicators

• Easy to track progress in anti-corruption à enables time series à analyzing & assessing change

Structure of the Corruption Indexes

•The CMS includes four types of indexes:

1) Attitudes towards corruption• Acceptability of corruption: the degree to which the population

accepts, at a value level, corrupt behavior from public officials • Susceptibility to corruption: the inclination to compromise

values and conform to corrupt behavior to solve personal problems

2) Corrupt practices• Corruption pressure on the general public: the degree to which

citizens are subject to direct or indirect pressure to participate in corrupt practices with public officials (cases, when public officials wanted or showed they expect corrupt behavior from citizens)

• Personal involvement in acts of corruption: self-reported cases, in which citizens have offered public officials money/gifts/favors, etc.

Structure of the Corruption Indexes (cont.)

3) Magnitude of corruption• Spread of corruption: citizens’ assessment of the spread of

corruption in the country, among public officials & public institutions

• Practicality/Effectiveness of corrupt behavior: the extent to which citizens perceive corruption as an efficient tool for solving personal problems

4) Expectations • The expectations of the general public about the capacity of

(potential in) society to curb corruption in the country

• corruption pressure, perceptions about the spread of corruption, and expectations for further corruption have increased

• at the same time, acceptance & susceptibility to corruption, and its practicality in solving problems, decreased à reducing actual involvement of citizens in corrupt practices

Values and Public Attitudes toward Corruption

1) Acceptance:

• citizens’ inclination to accept corruption and internalize it• BiH citizens remain mostly intolerant toward corrupt

practices

2) Susceptibility:

• citizens' inclination to conform to corrupt activities under pressure

• higher than acceptance à the moral condemnation of corruption does not preclude day-to-day corrupt practices

• 47.9% would not engage in corruption (accept gifts, money, favors) if they were in a civil servant’s shoes

• Another 1/3 would not do so, if this entails law evasion• However, 22.7% are inclined to directly pay to solve a

problem

Overall Trends

• Over 2001-2011, unemployment and corruption remained the two major concerns for BiH citizens

• Institutions: law-enforcing and governmental bodies are seen as widely captured by corruption • Over 1/3 felt that corruption is extensive among the local and

national government, ministries, the Council of Ministers, and the judiciary. Close to 40% believed that the customs and tax administration are crippled by corruption, and 45% shared the same sentiments about the police in BiH

• Profession: Every surveyed profession was seen as more corrupt• Police officers are seen as most corrupt. Customs officers

and their colleagues were also perceived as highly corrupt. Similar to 2001, teachers, NGO representatives, and journalists are still perceived as least corrupt

The spread of corruption in public institutions

• The concern that corruption is deeply entrenched into public institutions was universal across all regions in BiH

Personal Experience with Corruption

• Your assessment of the extent of corruption in your country is mainly based on ...

Corruption Pressure, Personal Experiences & Involvement

•Police officers and doctors remain the two professional groups exercising most corruption pressure

• A decrease in citizens’ personal experience of corruption when dealing with municipal, ministry & tax officials, and customs officers

Frequency of giving…, when contacting officials in the public sector:

• Over 1/2 see corruption as a constant & have no positive expectations for future improvements

• Merely 1 in 10 believe that corruption in BiH can be eradicated; 1/3 believe that the level of corruption can be significantly reduced

Thank You!

For more information, please read the full report Countering Corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina: 2001-2011, or visit the Center for the Study of Democracy at www.csd.bg