Faith in business and politicians falls, doctors still receiving payments

Confidence in the integrity of the business sector and of politicians has fallen in recent years, reports a study by Transparency International, but levels of 47% and 42% respectively are in line with international averages. As far as corruption involving households is concerned, backhanders remain most common in health care, where the practice of giving doctors "gratitude payments" (hálapénz) remains common. Some 18% of respondents admitted handing cash to their doctors.

Based on the figures published in the Global Corruption Barometer, 14% of Hungarians paid a bribe of some kind in the past year, compared to 7% in 2007, 18% in Serbia and Ukraine, and 3% in Austria and Croatia.

Reporting of corruption to the authorities was also found to be low, at just 3% of those that had witnessed corruption. Many repsondents said the authorities in place to deal with the problem were weak.

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