Public Opinion Survey: Corruption, Trust in Institutions and Issues Of Public Policy
Today, TI Georgia published results of a public opinion which was conducted by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC). CRRC conducted 1843 face-to-face interviews with adult Georgians throughout the country between March 3-28, 2018. The margin of error in the survey results is 2.8%.
The research covered issues related to corruption, trust towards state and public institutions, the performance of the main bodies of the government, significant public policy issues, work of the media and non-governmental organizations.
The following are the noteworthy findings of the research:
• Petty corruption: Only 1% responded that they or their family members had been asked to give a bribe in return for receiving public service in the past 12 months
• Grand corruption: 36% responded that abuse of power for personal gain by public officials is common in Georgia, while 16% said that it is not common
• Compared to other state institutions, public trust towards Parliament and the judiciary is significantly low as only 17% and 20% of the respondents trust them respectively
• Opinion about the judiciary: 58% of the respondents believe that the judiciary is under the influence of the ruling party, while 51% think that is not impartial and 80% say that the judges who have been pressured into making unjust decisions in the past must not work in the judiciary
• The majority of respondents believe that the Prosecutor’s Office (57%), Ministry of Internal Affairs (55%) and the State Security Service (55%) serve the interests of the ruling party
• Only 30% of the poll respondents have accurate information about government optimization in 2017 (reduction of the number of Ministries). Moreover, in the opinion of 61% of the poll respondents, the number of Ministries should be reduced further.