The report, entitled “Study on the National Integrity System” concludes that there has been a “national fail in the test of resistance to corruption,” and stresses that higher perceptions of corruption are lowering approval ratings for the Romanian government.
“Whether we refer to political leaders - national or local level - or representatives of public institutions, people have lost confidence that they could be held liable, or, promoted on the basis of objective criteria, managed either by the control institutions media and civil society,” Victor Alistar, executive director TI Romania said in a news release.
According to TI, the main corruption facilitators and “the most vulnerable pillars in the national integrity system analysis” in Romania are the public administration, political parties, and the business climate. Furthermore says Alistar, “selective and very limited transparency makes liability mechanisms inefficient.”
The report analyzed developments from 2008 to 2011 in 13 ‘pillars’ in the government, public sector, and civil society, judging their capacity, internal regulations, and external performance to determine where the weakness lie in Romania. The findings showed problems across all three areas.
The assessment found that the public sector is most affected by corruption, and is the least independent, and that the public procurement sector is “at risk.”
But the courts, it finds, are not the proper mechanism for combating corruption in Romania, and advocates instead for system-wide reform that would create ‘antibodies’ against corruption. Because the judiciary is heavily monitored under the European Commission’s Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, which assesses the country’s progress towards full European Union standards, TI finds that there has been some progress toward transparency and independence. However, warns the report, “their resources are affected by the economic crisis and rash public policies.”
Following the global recession, concerns about corruption have grown all over Europe, In a 2009 Eurobarometer survey, 78 percent of respondents said they believed that corruption was a major problem for their country. Combating corruption is seen as one of Romania’s key responsibilities under the Cooperation and Verification mechanism, and a primary qualification to be let into Europe’s visa-free Schengen travel zone.
The report on Romania is one of 25 such analyses of European national integrity systems commissioned by the European Commission.
Romania is in 75th place on Transparency International’s global 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index, with 3.6 points out of a possible 10.
