Georgians think country is mostly corruption free, except courts

51% of Georgians think the courts are extremely or very corrupt. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia has one of the lowest rates of bribery among the 107 countries included on the Global Corruption Barometer survey, but 51% think the courts are extremely or very corrupt.

Georgians still perceive the judiciary, the media and parliament as the most corrupt institutions in society, while religious bodies were found to be seen as the least corrupt.

When asked in September 2012 which institutions they perceived as most affected by corruption, 51% of respondents described the judiciary as extremely or very corrupt. Other sectors perceived as extremely or very corrupt were the media (42%), parliament (34%) and health care providers (33%).

“The results underline that there is a strong need for a continuing reform of the judiciary, which has been started in recent months. But we also need extend reforms to the prosecutor’s office, which remains a very powerful body that often appears to be highly politicized rather than being a body that is truly independent from the government, so that citizens develop a strong trust in the independence and fairness of law enforcement and the court system”, says Eka Gigauri, Executive Director of Transparency International Georgia.

On the question how ‘would you react to an incident of corruption?’, 63% of Georgian respondents said they would file a complaint. 49% of Georgians answered that they would call a government hotline, which does not exist in Georgia. More than a quarter said they didn’t know where to report. A large share of respondents who said they would not report corruption stated that it would not make any difference (46%) and 21% of respondents said they were afraid of the consequences.

The Global Corruption Barometer, carried out by the Secretariat of Transparency International in Berlin, is the only worldwide public opinion survey on views and experiences of corruption. The 2013 Global Corruption Barometer is based on the responses of 114 270 people in 107 countries.