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The vast majority of Maltese businesses believe that funding of political parties in exchange for public contracts or to influence policy development is widespread in their country.
This is the conclusion of a Eurobarometer survey of 252 Maltese companies carried out in April, which showed that 52% of businesses consider political party donations as a means of obtaining public contracts.
Maltese companies ranked third in believing that the practice was widespread in their country, after Romanian companies (55%) and Slovak companies (54%). The EU average was 36%.
The practice also made the top level of corruption in Malta, and was considered more common than offering free gifts or trips in exchange for services (20%) and favouring friends or family in business (46%) or public institutions (46%).
Furthermore, in the EU, 29% of people believe that gift-giving and bribery are widespread, while in Malta the proportion of respondents holding this view drops to 20%.
72% of Maltese companies surveyed also believe that close political ties between companies in the country can lead to corruption, but Maltese companies are less likely to express this assessment than companies in Greece (93%), Bulgaria (92%), Cyprus (91%) and Spain (90%).
Only 30% of Maltese companies agree that political connections are the only way to business success, compared to 40% in the EU.
Only 36% of Maltese respondents believed that businesses engaging in corrupt practices would be discovered or reported to the police or prosecutors, compared to 51% in the EU.
Furthermore, only 35% of Maltese business owners believe that those involved in corruption will be sentenced to heavy fines or imprisonment by the courts.
However, the proportion of Maltese companies that believe that individuals and companies engaging in corrupt practices may be subject to heavy fines or imprisonment by the courts has increased by 12 percentage points from 23% in 2023 to 35% now.
Furthermore, Maltese respondents are more likely now than in 2023 to agree that in their country, individuals and businesses caught for petty corruption are appropriately punished (+15 percentage points to 56%).
When asked if corruption had prevented their company from winning a public tender or public procurement contract in the past three years, 26% of Maltese companies said it had. But only 2% responded that they had been asked to provide gifts, favours or extra money in exchange for a licence or service.
In the survey, companies were asked what they considered the minimum value of a gift or service received by a public official in exchange for a favour to constitute a bribe.
Only 20% of Maltese businesses consider any gift, even one of no monetary value, to be a bribe, while 36% consider any monetary gift, even one of less than €50, to be a bribe. Furthermore, 35% consider any gift of more than €100 to be a bribe.
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