Sofia, June 11 (BTA) - A sense of vulnerability and pessimism
about the outcome is what usually deters people from reporting
corruption, according to a poll by Global Metrix in Bulgaria
among 1,053 respondents. It was taken on a commission by the
Bulgarian Institute for Legal Initiatives and the results were
presented earlier in the week at the Bulgarian News Agency press
 club.

The degree of readiness to report corruption at work is
moderate: half of the people would report this kind of
corruption.

Quite a lot of people are reluctant to send an alert for
corruption and the reason for that is that they feel unprotected
 (64 per cent of respondents say so). 59 per cent say that the
reason for their reluctance is that they donТt expect anybody to
 pay attention to the alert.

A quarter of respondents believe that corruption practices have
become so widespread that nobody is shocked any more.

Two in ten respondents would not report corruption because they
donТt know how, which highlights the need of civic education and
 raising people's awareness, the social analysts say.

The question if corruption should be reported, showed an
interesting phenomenon: while only one in two respondents feel
they have a personal responsibility to report corruption, nine
out of ten say that the others are responsible for reporting it.
 

There is a moderate readiness to testify against corruption:
half of respondents would testify. This readiness declines where
 the corruption involves the respondents' immediate superior or
a member of the top management of the organization where they
work. 

Asked if they would be afraid to report a corruption practice
they witness, more than two-thirds say they would be because
there aren't enough mechanisms to protect them.

The poll registers a high level of support for anonymous alerts:
 two-thirds of respondents. More than 95 per cent are adamant
that a framework is needed for protecting those who report
corruption.

The poll shows that the public sector and the state institutions
 are not the only ones affected by curruption: 87 per cent of
respondents say that it has affected both the public and the
private sector. One in five respondents says that they witnessed
 corruption practices in private organizations. 

The survey was done with assistance from the Embassy of the
Netherlands in Bulgaria and financial support from the Foreign
Ministry of the Netherlands under a project for building a
framework for protecting whistle-blowers. NV/LN