The Global Barometer of Corruption 2013, a survey carried out by Transparency International Spain (TI-Spain) makes for interesting, if predictable reading.
The Global Barometer is the result of a survey of 114,000 people in 107 countries and the highest level of corruption is a 5. For Spain:
The Spanish political parties are considered the most corrupt institutions in Spain with a score of 4.4. Second is Parliament with 3.9, followed by the judicial system with 3.5, public officials and private industry with 3.3, the media with 3.2, police with 3.1, religious bodies also with 3.1, the army with 2.6, quangos with 2.4, the health system with 2.3 and education with 2.1.
Of those surveyed, 66% believe that Spain is not governed by the people but by a few large businesses. Only 2% of those surveyed stated that they had paid a bribe in the past 12 months, preferring to go through the endless hoops to get things done.
However, 73% said it was important to have ‘personal contacts’ to solve their problems. Some 66% believed that the level of corruption has increased during the past 12 months.
Both the major political parties are involved in numerous corruption scandals at all levels of administration in almost all areas of the country.
In Andalucia, it is widely rumoured that the reason for the sudden departure of Griñan as the president of the Junta de Andalucia and the necessity for a speedy selection of a new president, by the end of July, is because he is expected to be implicated in the ERE (unemployment benefit) scandal.
The survey basically confirms what we all know. The general public seem aware of what is going on but are either unable or unwilling to do anything about it and the situation just gets worse. 83% of people in Spain thought that political parties were affected by corruption, which is quite a significant number.