9 in 10 businessmen in north Cyprus have received or given bribes - corruption report

About nine in 10 businessmen in north Cyprus have received bribes or have themselves bribed someone, according to a survey conducted in the TRNC on corruption carried out by the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce.

The survey reported on Thursday was based on the Transparency International agency’s standards.
According to the results, 89 per cent of business persons said they had been bribed or had bribed someone, while 62 per cent of the respondents believe that ‘state officials’ and political parties were misusing public funds to serve personal or party interests.

Almost seven in 10 said they consider politicians to be corrupt, while 62 per cent believe political parties are corrupt.

Compared to last year, according to the survey, the percentage of corruption and bribing has increased. Turkish Cypriot daily Havadis, said on Thursday in its front-page headline that ‘TRNC’ is the name of corruption.

The survey mentions the need to increase the powers of the police, the ‘legal services’ and the judiciary in order to increase penalties but also to facilitate the procedures for detecting corruption.