The Corruption Monitoring System piloted by the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) in Bulgaria in 1998 allows policy makers and the public to follow two critical corruption variables through composite indexes: corruption pressure from the public administration, and corruption victimization among the population.
The results show that administrative corruption among the population in Bulgaria over the past two years remains practically unchanged. On average, over the period 2012 – 2013, 14% of the adult population has been involved in corruption transactions at least once per year.
For the 1998 – 2013 period, several stages were registered by the CMS, based on the indexes of involvement of the population in corruption
transactions and corruption pressure exercised over citizens:
– up to 2001, the highest levels of corruption were observed, but the general trend was downward;
– in the 2001 – 2004 period, both indexes reached and maintained their lowest points;
– in 2005, corruption was on the rise again, reaching its highest points in 2008;
– since 2009, certain improvement compared to the previous period has been observed, both in the index of corruption pressure and of involvement in corruption transactions.
The analysis of corruption pressure and involvement in corruption practices indicates that while before the accession to the EU the economic development of Bulgaria and the government anti-corruption policies produced parallel effects, after the accession their impact seemed to follow diverging paths.
Source: CSD Policy Brief No 43: Corruption and Anti-corruption in Bulgaria (2012 – 2013)
