Turning the pages back... January 26, 2003 (01/23/05)

Turning the pages back...

January 26, 2003

Two years ago, on January 26, 2003, The Ukrainian Weekly's Roman Woronowycz reported that "A culture of corruption is settling upon Ukraine."

A national survey developed by the Ukrainian Institute for Social Research and the Social Monitoring Center in conjunction with the United Nations Development Program, showed that 78 percent of the respondents believed that all or nearly all government officials had accepted bribes. More than 80 percent stated that corruption was prevalent within the judicial branch of government, as well, while 71 percent responded in the affirmative to a query about whether they believed that most government officials were tied to the mafia or private family business relations.

The survey, conducted in late November and early December 2002, included 3,063 respondents from 83 cities and 69 villages across Ukraine. The margin of error was between 1.1 percent and 1.83 percent.

The most telling finding was that a good portion of Ukraine's populace seemed inclined to accept bribery and corruption as a normal part of everyday life. Some 23 percent of the respondents indicated that making additional payments beyond the assigned cost of a government service was tolerable. About 44 percent indicated they paid bribes or made gifts in one form or another at least once in the last year. "Today bribes have become the norm for society," explained Olha Balakirieva, director of the Social Monitoring Center. "This is one of the phenomena of contemporary Ukrainian society that we need to research. We cannot ignore it."

Ms. Balakirieva said that a majority of the respondents accepted the situation because they believed their government was incapable of change. Nearly two-thirds responded that in their estimation government actively resists popular control and refuses to listen to its citizens. Most citizens believed the government lacks democratic values, has little transparency in day-to-day activities and is all but bereft of professionalism. She noted that about 44 percent of respondents replied that central government authorities were incapable of resolving individual and societal problems, and a like number, 45 percent, could not do so at the oblast and local level.

Source: "Nationwide survey reveals culture of corruption in Ukraine," by Roman Woronowycz, Kyiv Press Bureau, The Ukrainian Weekly, January 26, 2003, Vol. LXXI, No. 4.

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