Azernews.Az

BAKU – 47 percent of Azerbaijani citizens have to pay bribes, a Transparency International (TI) survey showed Thursday.

Police bodies are the most corrupt, followed by government agencies, educational institutions and courts, claims the study, which is based on polling conducted in the country by the Berlin-based watchdog.

The public's faith in political parties in Azerbaijan differs drastically from the trends reported across the world, as they are not considered the most corrupt, according to TI’s global study, which builds on the opinions of 91,500 people polled in 86 countries.

52 percent of respondents in Azerbaijan claim that corruption has increased in the country, while 28 percent of those polled said it has decreased. The remaining 20 percent said corruption levels remain unchanged, the 2010 Global Corruption Barometer revealed.

66 pct of those polled in Azerbaijan believe the government is effectively combating corrupt practices, while 26 pct said to the contrary.

Despite the global trend, 65 pct of Azerbaijani respondents said they confided in government leaders in fighting corruption, while 19 pct of respondents said no one is trustworthy in this respect.

As for confidence in various institutions, 4.3 pct of respondents said they trust international organizations, while 1.1 pct confide in NGOs and 0.9 pct in businessmen. The media enjoys little public support, with only 3.8 pct of those polled saying they believe in its role in society.

Azerbaijan was included in the second group of countries on corruption levels, alongside Lithuania, Mexico, Moldova and Ukraine, where corrupt practices were estimated at 30-49.9 pct.

Armenia, Russia, Turkey and Belarus were included in the third group, with corruption spread estimated at 20-29.9 pct.

Georgia is among countries with corruption levels below 6 pct and is in the fifth group, alongside the United States, the UK and Finland.

Of note, just like in Azerbaijan, respondents in Afghanistan, Georgia, Iraq, Morocco and Vietnam do not deem corruption as a serious problem, but analysts say to the contrary.

Asked why they had to pay bribes, 20 pct of respondents in Azerbaijan said they did so "to receive services that have to be provided anyway", while 12.4 pct said the purpose was "to speed up the process" and 6 pct "to avoid problems with state bodies".

68.9 pct of the survey participants opined that rank-and-file citizens could be insturmental in fighting corruption. 89.4 pct of those polled said they would support such efforts on the part of their friends or colleagues. While 68.9 pct of the polled persons deem themselves as active contributors to anti-corruption combat, 63.9 pct said they would report instances of corruption to government agencies.

TI concluded that corruption levels are high in Azerbaijan, but inspiring optimism is the fact that about two out of three respondents in the country believe that rank-and-file citizens could play a major role in resolving the problem. These findings could be considered considerable progress in comparison with those of 2004 when people rather sidelined themselves from the fight against corruption and laid their responsibility on others, mostly government agencies.

The TI report rated Azerbaijan 134th among 180 countries. In their comments, Azerbaijani officials say anti-corruption legislation has been improved in the country and special units established under the Presidential Administration and the Prosecutor-General’s Office to fight corruption.