Few Albanian Business Report Corruption, Report Says

“Over one third (36.2 per cent) of business representatives did not report bribery because they consider there is no need to report bribery, as it is common practice to pay or give gifts to public officials,” UNODC said in a statement.

 “In addition, almost one quarter (23.6 per cent) of respondents stated they did not report bribery because it would be pointless to report it as nobody would care about it,” it added.

The Survey on Impact of Bribery and Crime on Private Enterprises was conducted by UNODC in cooperation with Albanian Institute of Statistics, INSTAT, with the support of the European Union.  

The survey found that the prevalence rate for bribery among local businesses was 15.7 per cent. Bribe-paying businesses paid an average of 4.6 bribes to public officials in the 12 months prior to the survey.

According to the survey, there are some variations in the prevalence of bribery across business sectors in Albania.

“In Albania, 35.7 per cent of bribes are paid in cash and the mean amount paid per bribe is 53,000 Leke, which corresponds to €904, when adjusted to purchasing power parity .

“The main purposes of paying bribes are to speed up a procedure (39.1 per cent), to make the finalization of a procedure possible (16.8 per cent) and receiving better treatment (7.2 per cent),” UNDOC said.

“In addition, 13.5 per cent of bribes paid served no specific immediate purpose,” it added.

The survey found that the prevalence rate of bribes paid to public officials is highest for police officers (12.5 per cent), customs officers (12.3 per cent), tax/revenues officers (10.7 per cent) and municipal or provincial officers (10.2 per cent).