Turkey flies high in world bribery list

ISTANBUL

People stand outside a courthouse during a bribery case. DHA photo

Turkey ranks among the worst 10 countries in which bribery is commonly used to win contracts, according to an Ernst&Young survey conducted with C-level executives in 36 countries.

Some 39 percent of Turkish respondents to the survey think resorting to bribery is necessary to win the tenders in their sector, while 55 percent believe corruption is “widespread” across all businesses.

The gap between the two figures reveals the respondents’ tendency to think bribery is more common in the overall economy than in their own sectors.

“Despite companies knowing the corruption risks in the business world, they don’t acknowledge the risks in their own sectors,” Ernst&Young Turkey Audit Services Department Head Dilek Çilingir Köstem said in a statement. “In order to be able to move against corruption, executives should admit the risks to be able to manage them.”

Concerning “overall” corruption perception, Turkey ranks lower than 11 European countries in the list.

Slovenian bosses have the least faith in the transparency of business in their country, with 96 percent of them telling Ernst&Young surveyors that bribery and corruption commonly took place there.

As usual, northern European countries have the lowest percentages of respondents who think bribery is widespread in their country.

The survey also exposes perceptions over how companies report their true financial performances, by asking: “How often do companies report their financial performance to be better than it is?” The Turkish respondents who said “yes” to the question are reported at 45 percent in the survey results, higher than the 38 percent average.