According to the Corruption Monitoring System survey, carried out in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2001 and 2011, citizens have perceived an increase in corruption in every profession monitored over the last decade. Unlike 2001, almost all professions were seen as corrupt by more than half of the citizens in 2011. This points out to a worrying trend that administrative corruption, i.e. corruption between the public administration and citizens has become so entrenched that people have started seeing it as all pervasive and systemic in character. Although much less people were victims of corruption in 2001 and 2011, and although victimization has actually decreased in 2011 compared to 2001, the lack of sizeable and sustainable anti-corruption impact has led citizens to perceive corruption as omnipresent. Police officers are both seen as the most corrupt, and are characterized by the largest increase in perceived corruption of any professional group included in this survey. Customs officers and their colleagues were also perceived as highly corrupt. These results are similar to what has been recorded in other countries in the region. The reasons for such rankings are both the inherent corruption risks in these professions related to their control functions, but also the frequency of citizens’ contacts with them. Typically, households have highest frequency of contact with the police, customs, etc., which commonly leads to citizens recognizing these institutions as more corrupt than others, with which they have fewer contacts.
31Oct2013
