Study: Three quarters of Romanians believe the country is heading in the wrong direction

Three quarters of Romanian believe that the country is heading in the wrong direction, and only 20% think the opposite, according to a national survey on the public perceptions on conflict of interest, presented by the Institute for Public Policy (IPP). For things to go better in the country, most Romanian believe that several issues should be addressed as a priority, namely corruption (72%), the lack of jobs (64%), poverty (62%), low income (54%), theft of public money (54%), and health problems (46%). The survey was carried out between March 10 and March 24, 2017, among more than 1,000 people aged 18 and over. The research also shows that 86% of Romanians wouldn’t vote for a mayor investigated for conflict of interest, while 43% believe that a person who is in a conflict of interest situation should be dismissed. Some 36% think that those in this position should stand trial. Only 11% said that someone who is in a conflict of interest situation should be sanctioned administratively. More than half of the respondents said that they would notify the competent institution about a case of conflict of interest if they knew about it, with most of them (48%) saying that they would notify the National Anti-corruption Department (DNA) or the National Agency of Integrity (ANI). However, 38% said that they would not notify anyone about a case of conflict of interest they know about, mainly because this would not be of help (32%), because it would create problems to them (31%), or because it’s not their responsibility to do so (22%). Nearly two-thirds of respondents believe that the most frequent cases of conflict of interest are found in institutions at central level (government, parliament, ministries, and other agencies), and almost one-third think that the phenomenon is more prevalent among local institutions (city halls, local councils, county councils). Some 86% believe that the conflict of interest is most widespread in the parliament, 85% - in the government, and 78% - in city halls. At the other end are the schools (34%), the Church (37%), and the private sector (40%). The survey also shows that, while half of the respondents say that they are interested in the conflict of interest issue, 17% are not at all interested in this subject. According to most respondents (48%), conflict of interest in the public sector means “a conflict between the personal interests of a civil servant and the public interest.” Meanwhile, 16% say that the definition of the conflict of interest is either "a conflict between the interests of public officials" or "a conflict between the personal interests of the same public official." However, regardless of how they define the conflict of interest, 78% of those questioned consider that this is an act of corruption. A third of Romanian firms believe that business is affected by corruption Romania sees slight improvement in Transparency International’s corruption index