Almost all in north think ‘government’ is corrupt

Almost all people in the north believe that the ‘government’ is corrupt, a study conducted by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) found, reports said on Tuesday, as opposition parties there called for resignations over the findings.

According to Halkin Sesi, the report conducted for 2022 by Metron Research quizzed 350 business leaders in the north and found that 99 per cent of them believed the ‘government’ was corrupt and took bribes.

The study also found that 72 per cent said this was a serious issue, while 40 per cent openly admitted to having bribed authorities.

The study was conducted by FES’ academics in Cyprus Omer Gokcekus and Setac Sonan.

Findings in the report showed that corruption is more widespread in ‘public sector’ tenders, licences and approvals.

According to the report, the most corrupt group is the ‘prime minister’ and the ‘ministers.’

Commenting on the findings in the north’s ‘parliament’, Urun Solyali of main opposition CTP called on the ‘government’ to quit over the findings.

“This is the bomb; 99 per cent of those surveyed believe that there is bribery and corruption in northern Cyprus. 40 per cent of people say they bribed. Yes, they say that I or someone I know bribed someone from the state to have a job,” Solyali said.

“In short, society does not trust you. If it were me, I would have quit my job at a point where I gave so much distrust to the society.”

He added that according to the report, which scored the north a 27 out of 100, showed that countries including the Gambia are doing better in corruption matters than them.

Also commenting, well-known columnist Cenk Mutluyakali said the ‘country’ is going backwards as is evident by their rankings, where in 2017 they were in 81^st place in the world, and now they are in 140^th place.

He said half of the island is turning into a “cesspool”, while those responsible are profiting.