Bribery

The long-awaited trial of dozens of suspects in the Siemens cash-for-contracts scandal started on Friday but was almost immediately postponed until March 6 due to absences.

The long-awaited trial of dozens of suspects in the Siemens cash-for-contracts scandal started on Friday but was almost immediately postponed until March 6 due to absences.

The former chairwoman of the Central Election Commission in Romania has admitted to anti-corruption prosecutors that she accepted a bribe to the amount of EUR 275,000, reported BTA.

Ana Maria Petru, who occupied the post for 31 years, pointed out that most of the money was given to her by a firm which had several contracts with the election commission.

A chief inspector of the labor ministry was caught while receiving bribe in an undercover sting operation in the northwestern province of Düzce on Dec. 20. 

Greece has a poor track record in fighting corruption in party financing, bribery and trading in influence, according to new report by the Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), which said it saw no improvement since its last report in June, 2015.

Widespread corruption in the administration restricts the options of Bulgarian companies. A total of 46% have received a demand for a bribe by bureaucrats, showed a survey of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) presented by the chairman of the employers' organisation Tsvetan Simeonov.

According to Simeonov, merely 48% of companies have not been asked for a bribe.

A new survey has shown that tolerance to corruption among Bulgarian citizens is very low but only one out of 10 believes it is very likely for an official to be convicted on corruption charges in the country, bTV reported on Monday.

Just 2% of 1,000 respondents polled by Exacta Research Group state that they won't blame people who ask for bribes, while 98% don't justify them.

Romania's high court of cassation and justice on Thursday jailed the former telecommunications minister, Gabriel Sandu, for two years for money laundering, abuse of office and bribery involving the lease of Microsoft IT licenses for schools.

One in five people worldwide report having paid a bribe for land, with rates even higher in sub-Saharan Africa where women say they are forced to trade sex for property rights, according to research by a top global anti-corruption watchdog. 

It’s been almost a decade since the start of the multibillion dollar corruption scandal at Siemens. The German judiciary has long placed ex-Siemens CEO Heinrich von Pierer on file, but now Athens wants the trial of the century to fly open.