More and more entrepreneurs in Ukraine consider corruption to be a priority problem in the country, second only to the armed aggression of Russia. At the same time, last year business was the most active in exposing corruption. This is evidenced by the results of another nationwide survey “Corruption in Ukraine 2024: Understanding, Perception, Prevalence” conducted by Info Sapiens sociological company on behalf of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC).
Thus, in 2024, 76% of representatives of Ukrainian business entities called corruption a very serious problem, while in 2023, 73% thought so. In addition, 57% of entrepreneurs believe that the level of corruption in Ukraine has increased over the past year (46.3% in 2023). However, business is less pessimistic than the population.
"In many cases, certain actions by the state offset all its efforts to improve the situation and establish a dialog with business. For example, since 2023, we have seen an improvement in the situation with the blocking of tax invoices, but this is not always accompanied by a change in the behavior of tax authorities. The state should ensure consistent implementation of the necessary changes at all levels of the system to promote trust in communication with business,” said Business Ombudsman Roman Vashchuk at the presentation of the study.
The perception of the prevalence of corruption in Ukraine has also worsened among business representatives. 83.1% of respondents believe that corruption is somewhat or very widespread (in 2022, 81.3% thought so).
At the same time, the trend continues for entrepreneurs to assess the prevalence of corruption in the area where they operate to be much lower than in other areas and in Ukraine as a whole. Thus, the average index of perception of corruption in the area where the surveyed entrepreneurs work is almost twice lower than the assessment of corruption in Ukraine as a whole. More than a third of entrepreneurs (30.4-39.1%) reported a complete absence of corruption cases in their field of activity. And the share of those who said that corruption is “absent” and “almost absent” in the respective area exceeded half of the respondents (54.2%-64.5%).
While more than two-thirds of entrepreneurs consider corruption to be widespread, more than three times fewer respondents have directly dealt with corrupt practices. In 2024, 23.2% of business representatives reported having experienced corruption. This figure remained almost unchanged compared to 2023.
Businesses name customs as the most corruption-affected sector. The second most corrupt sector is providers of electricity, gas, water, and sewage systems, followed by law enforcement, construction, and land relations.
"We are concerned about the lack of positive dynamics of changes in these areas. They have remained the “leaders” in terms of the prevalence of corruption for several years in a row. In fact, every third entrepreneur who encounters these areas states this,” said Volodymyr Kharchenko, Head of the Division for Generalization of Data on Corruption and Counteraction to Corruption of the NACP's Anti-Corruption Policy Department.
The lowest rate of corruption experience among the business audience was recorded in such areas as tax authorities, control and supervision of business activities, and enforcement of court decisions.
According to the survey, 58.8% of entrepreneurs reported a negative attitude toward corruption. This figure has increased in recent years: for comparison, in 2021, 55.3% of entrepreneurs had a negative attitude towards corruption.
At the same time, the involvement of entrepreneurs in exposing corruption by reporting it to authorized institutions is steadily increasing. Last year, one in six business representatives reported corruption to the competent authorities, and this figure is the highest compared to previous years.
The survey results are available at the link.
The survey was conducted via computerized telephone interviews. The sample represents individual entrepreneurs (IEs) and business owners and/or managers of legal entities. A total of 1206 respondents were interviewed. The maximum theoretical error of the sample of entrepreneurs does not exceed ±3 percentage points without taking into account the design effect.
