€120 billion lost to corruption in EU each year
Around €120 billion is lost to corruption each year in the 27 member states, said the EU commissioner for home affairs Cecilia Malmstrom . “In public procurement, studies suggest that up to 20 to 25 per cent of the public contracts’ value may be lost to corruption”, said Malmstrom on 5 March at an anti-corruption seminar in Göteborg, Sweden.
Public procurement contracts in the EU amount to around 15 per cent of the EU’s total GDP. Transparency International (TI) noted in a 2012 report that the worst offenders in public procurement cases are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Romania and Slovakia. For example, the transparency group found that out of five managers of small companies in the Czech Republic, three believe they have to use bribery and kickbacks to win a public contract.
In an attempt to boost political will among Member States to tackle these issues, the Commission will publish an anti-corruption report later this year, addressing corruption trends across the EU and the policies in place to fight it. The report will “to some extent, stimulate political commitment to fight corruption more vigorously”, said Commissioner Malmstrom.
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