Corruption perception in Spain has risen 10 points during the crisis, according to a report published by the Barcelona Institute of Economics
The Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB) of the University of Barcelona (UB) has presented the report Corruption: Magnitude, causes and consequences. It analyses the perception of corruption in Spain and the social, democratic and economic implications that are derived. The report features data of the index corruption perception prepared by the organization Transparency International (TI), which shows how the perception of corruption in Spain among experts on the issue in the public sector has grown 10 points during the crisis. Thus, while in the years of economic boom the index gave Spain a score of 70 (where 100 points indicate the lowest level of corruption), the result in 2014 fell to 60 points.
The Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB) of the University of Barcelona (UB) has presented the report Corruption: Magnitude, causes and consequences. It analyses the perception of corruption in Spain and the social, democratic and economic implications that are derived. The report features data of the index corruption perception prepared by the organization Transparency International (TI), which shows how the perception of corruption in Spain among experts on the issue in the public sector has grown 10 points during the crisis. Thus, while in the years of economic boom the index gave Spain a score of 70 (where 100 points indicate the lowest level of corruption), the result in 2014 fell to 60 points.
With these results, Spain maintains stable and close to the average for the European Union and Western European values. Compared with these countries, Spain is listed as19th out of 32 positions, far from the Nordic (in first positions), but also far from the results of Greece, Italy and Romania, where citizens consider corruption a systemic problem in the country.
Spain results are somewhat worse in population surveys such as Eurobarometer 2013. The European report showed as the 95% of Spaniards felt that corruption was widespread in the country, a percentage only lower than the ones of Greece (99%) and Italy (97%), and far from the 76% averaged in the European Union. In addition, 63% of the Spanish population surveyed said that corruption affected them personally in their daily lives, the same percentage as Greece and far from the 26% indicated by the European average.
The economic crisis has also facilitated the viewing of corruption as a social problem. IEB's report says that corruption has not increased during the crisis, but it has served to give visibility. The report relies on data from the Centre for Sociological Research (CIS) to support the claim. According to the latest barometer of the CIS, 50% of the population believes that corruption and fraud is one of the three main problems of the country, just below unemployment. Until October 2009, only 1% of the population perceived corruption as a problem.
The IEB report points out the creation of transparency mechanisms as a possible measure to control and correct corruption and recommends the creation of tools for both passive transparency (access to administrative files and records) and active transparency (disseminate information management) as the transparency portal, active since 2014. In this regard, the report provides a transparency index of autonomous regions, which analyses 80 indicators about the information they provide to citizens. The index shows that Castilla y Leon, Catalonia and the Basque Country are the three most transparent communities (100 out of 100) while Madrid (65), Murcia (78.8) and Canarias (80) are placed in the queue. The Spanish average is 88.6 points, above the 71.5 obtained in 2010 and 79.9 in 2012.