Corruption remained the main unsolved problem in Romania in the fourth quarter of 2012, with most business leaders unsatisfied with the action taken by the authorities to tackle the issue, shows a recent study conducted by the Romanian Business Leaders Foundation, in partnership with GfK Romania.

“The institutions’ performance in this area decreased compared to the third quarter - no ministry registered a positive perception of over 8 percent, and the Ministry of Environment and Forests is the only one recording a slight increase,” reads the Good Governance Barometer. The Romanian Ministry of Transport was the institution with the highest level of negative perception - over 82 percent.

In the last quarter of 2012, the Romanian business leaders lost their confidence in the six ministries evaluated in this study, namely the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business Environment, Ministry of Public Finance, Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism, Ministry of Environment and Forests, and the Ministry of Public Administration and Interior, and Bucharest City Hall.

The transparency of the Romanian authorities is also an issue for business leaders. “In the fourth quarter of 2012, compared to the previous one, the positive perception on the evaluated public institutions’ transparency dropped strongly,” reads the study. The Ministry of Economy was the least transparent institution evaluated, with only 2.6 percent having a positive perception.

The trust of the 115 leaders that participated at this study in the six Romanian ministries’ competence also dropped in the last three months of 2012, and they are also unsatisfied with the capacity of the public authorities to implement changes and projects - the Ministry of Transport has the weakest implementation capacity, the negative perception reaching a record level of over 82 percent.

All the six ministries evaluated in the Good Governance Barometer exhibit a lack of efficiency, recording a strong decline in positive perceptions in the fourth quarter of last year. Business leaders considered the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Transport as the weakest in meeting their objectives, according to the study.

Romanian Business Leaders (RBL) also issued the fifth edition of its BusinessMeter. The report shows that half of the business leaders think they will freeze hiring in 2013, and almost half of the respondents expect salary increases of some 5 percent in the companies they run, own, or represent. Also, some 50 percent of the leaders see a double-digit growth in business this year.

The first edition of the RBL summit was held in February 2012. Romanian Business Leaders is an apolitical, non-governmental and non-profit organization created in July 2011, with the aim of “productively connecting leaders of the private domain so as to make Romania a better country for business”, according to the foundation.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com