A survey conducted by the Transparency International revealed that 45 percent of Turkish society thinks corruption in the country has spread in the past four years.

Transparency International Association, Turkey branch of Transparency International, President Oya Özarslan pointed out that, corruption slows down economy, decreases the trustworthyness of legal system, abuses the limited resources and causes injustice. Özarslan called out to all segments of society to solve this problem.

“Global Corruption Perceptions Index 2016” research, conducted in 42 countries of Europe and Central Asia, has shown that corruption is widespread around the globe. According to the research, corruption is determined to be one of three big problems and 53 percent of the participants said that their governments are failing in the fight against corruption. Most corrupt groups are viewed as congressmen and public officials.

Findings in Turkey are similar to the global corruption according to the results of the research; 45 percent of participants think that corrupion has spread in the last four years, 29 percent think that recuperation on corruption.

Another key finding is political polarisation is an important factor on the perception of corruption. 41 percent of the society think that the government is successfull in the fight against corruption while another 41 percent think that the government is failing in the figth against corruption.

62 percent of the participants think that (23 percent being all of them, 24 percent being some of them and 15 percent being most of them) all personnel from institutions and organisations composing the executive power, are corrupt. 19 percent think that institutions and organisations are not corrupt while 20 percent did not want to express their opinion on the subject.

Accordign to the research results the people, institutions and organisations are percieved as corrupt are; lawmakers with 67 percent, government officials and local officials with 66 percent, judiciary power with 64 percent, religious officials with 58 percent, Transparency International said.

The organisations percieved as most corrupt are; government officials with 41 percent, parliament with 40 percent, tax offices with 39 percent, local administration officials with 38 percent, executive power with 38 percent, judiciary power with 36 percent, private sector executives with 35 percent, religious leaders with 33 percent and police with 32 percent, according to the results of the survey.

Corruption is an important problem and an obstacle while accesing social services and social rights. The percentage of citizens bribing officials are; 23 percent when applying for unemployment assurances, 20 percent in judiciary process, 18 percent in public schools, 17 percent on other schools, 16 percent when using their social security, 12 percent on public health services, 12 percent on obtaining official documents, 11 percent on relations with traffic police.

18 percent of the citizens used bribes on mentioned services, which is a large number compared to institutional democracies, Transparency International said.

When asked about denounciation of corruption, society is in a deep insecurity and despair; 57 percent of the society is saying that they will not denounciate when faced with corruption because of the fear of negative consequences or the other problems they will face when trying to prove the corruption or worse the fear of whole organisation being corrupt.

According to the research results, 50 percent of the society thinks that the wealthy being a factor when deciding govenrment policies is a problem while 27 percent thinks that it is not a problem.

According to Transparency International, 41 percent of the society thinks that companies donating to political parties is not a problem, while 36 percent thinks that it should be limited or banned. This, points out that public awareness should be raised on finance of politics.

“The only promising result is, 60 percent of the society thinks that they can make a difference in the fight against corruption. Similarly 64 percent of the society thinks that society responds positively to the people who denounciate corruption, 61 percent of the society will deounciate corruption if witnessed and 62 percent said they will denounciate if they face jail time” Transparency International said.

Mahmut Can Emir – İstanbul DHA