Companies in Cyprus deeply concerned about corruption, European Commission report suggests

Corruption is a thorn in the side of businesses in Cyprus, with almost all- 96%- of the companies questioned for a European Commission report considering that this is a widespread phenomenon in the country and seven out of ten companies (72%) expressing the position that corruption is a problem for business activity.

The above emerged in the European Commission's report for 2024 Rule of Law report on Cyprus.

According to the report, only 47% of businesses, i.e. not even half, consider the level of independence of courts and judges to be "fairly or very good", while in terms of their perception of the independence of the judiciary, while improved compared to 2023 (44%), this is at lower levels than 2020 (48%).

According to the perception expressed by experts and business executives, the level of corruption in the public sector remains relatively high, as in Transparency International's 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index cited in the European Commission’s report, Cyprus scored 53/100 and ranked 21st in the European Union and 49th worldwide.

Also, 96% of companies believe that corruption is widespread (EU average: 65%) and 72% believe that corruption is a problem for doing business (EU average: 36%).

Furthermore, 24% of respondents believe that there are enough successful prosecutions to deter individuals from corrupt practices (EU average: 32%), while 10% of companies believe that individuals and businesses arrested for bribing senior officials of an employee are duly punished (EU average: 31%)

Of particular importance is the fact that 61% of companies in Cyprus (EU average: 27%) believe that corruption has, in practice, prevented them from winning a public tender or a public contract in the last three years.

The full report can be viewed here.

(Source: InBusinessNews)