Three quarters of Romanians think corruption has increased in past five years

Three quarters of Romanians think corruption has increased in Romania in the past five years, reveals a poll conducted by the Centre for Studying Opinions and Markets (CSOP) at the request of the Association for Implementing Democracy (AID). Only 6 percent of those interviewed think that corruption in Romania has decreased in the past few years, while 13 percent say that they do not feel any change of the corruption level in Romania. Young people and Bucharest inhabitans said that, in their opinion, the corruption level did not increase to a large extent. Respondents with higher education and the ones living in Bucharest are more numerous in saying that the corruption level has gone down, reads the report. As for bribing, almost a quarter of the population aged over 18 admitted that they used bribery in the past 12 months. "The percentage of the people who offered bribe is higher in Bucharest and lower in the rural areas and in the categories on lower incomes and ethnic minorities," reads the survey. The study was made on a sample of 1,122 people, representative for the population aged over 17 in Romania. The interviews were conducted over May 25-June 5, 2010. AGERPRES