Household survey on experience of corruption and other forms of crime in Croatia

Commissioned by: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) – Survey and Statistics Section, Vienna  
Project duration: April, 2010 – June, 2011 
Project manager: Jelena Budak, PhD

• Croatian citizens rank corruption as the third most important problem facing their country today, after unemployment and the performance of the Government.
• Nine out of ten Croatian citizens interact with the public administration at some point during the course of the year.
• In the 12 months prior to this survey, 18 percent of Croatian citizens had either direct or indirect exposure to bribery with a public official.
• The bribery prevalence rate among citizens who had contact with public officials in that period is 11 percent.
• There are no significant differences in the prevalence of bribery in urban and rural areas of Croatia.
• The highest prevalence of bribery is observed in Zagreb and Dalmatia regions, while in Istria, Hrvatsko primorje and Gorski kotar it is below the national average.
• One in ten Croatian women participates in bribery, as opposed to 13 percent of Croatian men.
• Everyone who reports the payment of at least one bribe, on average, actually pays four bribes or the equivalent of one bribe every three months.
• Almost half (44%) of bribes are paid in cash, more than a third (37%) as food and drink.
• The average cash bribe paid in Croatia is 2,050 HRK, or the equivalent of approximately 280 EUR.
• In more than half (58%) of bribery incidents, Croatian citizens initiate the payment, whereas one in twelve (8%) is explicitly requested to pay a bribe.
• The main purposes of paying bribes in Croatia are to speed up a procedure (35%) or to receive better treatment (18%).
• Croatian citizens tend to use bribes in contacts with police and car registration officers to avoid the payment of a fine or reduce the amount fined.
• More than half of all bribe-payers in Croatia pay kickbacks to doctors (56%), more than a third to nurses (36%).
• Of those citizens refusing to pay bribes, one in four (25%) refuses to pay police officers and almost one in five (19%) refuses to pay doctors.
• Only 2 percent of citizens with corruption experience report the incident. Citizens do not report corruption experiences because they receive extra benefits (26%) or because they give bribes voluntarily as a sign of gratitude (24%).
• Croatian citizens lack reasons to report corruption. More than half think that people who report corruption are likely to regret it, and nothing constructive will come of reporting it.
• Perceptions of widespread corruption in the public sector are backed up by the experience of 16 percent of those who, in the three years prior to this survey, secured a job in the public administration with the help of a bribe.
• The offer of goods, favors and money to attract voters was evidenced during the last local and national elections: 4 percent of citizens were approached at local elections and 3 percent at the last parliamentary or presidential elections.
• Corruption has a higher prevalence rate than other crimes such as theft, burglary, robbery and assault. This is in line with the rather low crime rate in Croatia, where citizens feel safe at home after dark and do not use advanced security systems to protect their homes.