A survey on corruption and fraud by consultants Ernst & Young has put Portugal in 5th place in a list of 38 countries.
Even more corrupt is Croatia, Kenya, Slovenia and Serbia.
The results of the survey followed questions put to 3,800 in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India. Ernst & Young
credited Portugal’s high position to it’s being “battered” by corruption cases in the last year and a half.
Talking to Lusa, Ernst & Young Pedro Cunha said while 83% of working people questioned “agreed that practices of bribery and corruption exist in a generalized form in Portugal”, 61% consider there are has been a distortion in the financial results of companies and only 28% consider the business ethics of their own company to be “very good”.
The only good news is that 25% of those questioned believed business ethics in the companies they work for have improved in the last two years.
Elsewhere, the people of Croatia were condemned corruption in their country almost to a man (92% affirming it was generalized).
Only Denmark came out of the survey with a smile.
There just 4% think systemic corruption and fraud is a practice to be concerned about.
