Low perceived level of corruption in Poland

A recent report published by a private auditing and business advisory firm revealed that the overall perceived level of corruption in Poland is much lower than the global average, the Polish media reported in June 2014.

“In Poland, corruption is no longer much of an issue,” Mariusz Witalis, partner at EY, the company that authored the report on corruption, said as quoted by Polish economic daily Puls Biznesu. “The good position of Poland is the effect of systematic fight with this pathology. The work done by CBA and other internal secret services deter some potential wrongdoers. And even though many economic scandals are being uncovered, our consistency in fighting corruption is outstanding compared to other countries in the region.”

The study was conducted  internationally on a sample of 2,700 managerial staff from large companies based in 59 countries. The overall average percentage of managers who admitted that corruption is a common phenomenon in their countries reached 40 percent, which places Poland considerably below the average line with only 14 percent of Polish managers complaining about corruption.

The result is outstanding when compared to other countries in the region (69 percent in the Czech Republic and 63 percent in Hungary), but leaves a lot to wish for when Western European countries are included in the equation. Only 6 percent of German managers admitted that corruption is common in Germany, and even less – 2 percent – in Denmark.

The results of the report may indicate that Poland’s relatively low level of corruption could be due to the good prevention/deterrence tools rather than to a decreasing number of managers ready to commit an act of corruption. Indeed, 6 percent of Polish managers stated they would offer entertainment to meet business goals, 12 percent would hand a gift, and 20 percent stated they would even pay a bribe to meet their business goals.