There’s a huge gap between the perceived and real corruption in Lithuania, says Saulius Urbanavičius, head of the country’s Special Investigation Service (SIS).
There’s a huge gap between the perceived and real corruption in Lithuania, says Saulius Urbanavičius, head of the country’s Special Investigation Service (SIS).
“There’s a great concern that people n Lithuania believe corruption is widespread in the country and is the largest in the European Union. But the biggest surprise was the gap between the perceived and real situation,” he told journalists at the Seimas on Tuesday.
“If we look at the other figure which is more positive and reflects people’s personal situation and how corruption affects their lives, then Lithuania is near the EU average,” Urbonavičius maintained.
According to Urbanavičius, in order to improve the existing situation, more attention must be paid to corruption prevention and “the contribution of other institutions should be bigger”.
A recent Eurobarometer survey has shown that 95 per cent of Lithuanians regard corruption as widespread in their country, which is one of the highest rates in the European Union.
The percentage of people who believe so is higher only in Greece (99 per cent) and Italy (97 per cent). The same result as in Lithuania was also recorded in Spain and the Czech Republic, compared with the EU average of 76 per cent.
The survey also showed that Lithuania has the EU’s highest percentage (29 per cent) of respondents who say they have been asked or expected to pay a bribe for services received over the past 12 months.
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