Albanian 
Prishtina, December 9, 2021- On the World Anti-Corruption Day, for the fourth time in a row, the American Chamber of Commerce in Kosovo in partnership with USAID, presented the findings of the study on corruption perception from the perspective of private sector.
Results from the conducted study showed that more than 87% of responds believe that the level of corruption in Kosovo remains alarming, whereas, none of the respondents claimed that there is no corruption in Kosovo.
Moreover, in comparison to last year, there is a greater trust of the ‘New Government’ regarding their commitment in fighting corruption, as 58% of respondents believe that the government is committed to fight corruption.
Data showed that rule of law is the main factor to ‘contribute’ to the presence of corruption. Another worrying aspect is that even though businesses declare that corruption is present as mentioned above, only 15% of them have reported it, and the main reasons according to the results are the fear of revenge and the distrust of judiciary institutions.
Christopher Thompson gave congratulations to American Chamber of Commerce in Kosovo for carrying out the corruption perception study for the fourth consecutive year, adding that this study is an important and valuable tool to see how businesses perceive and experience in corruption, and how they respond to this phenomenon.
He called upon the assembly of Kosovo to implement the reforms of commercial court law. The Implementation of the Commercial Court Law will be a major accomplishment of Kosovo and of government and help businesses to attract the kind of investors that Kosovo needs.
He encouraged businesses to report corruption and pay attention to the survey as there is a gap between experiencing and not reporting it.
As results showed, in comparison to previous year, there is greater trust in the new government on improving the environment for fighting corruption. That is why, this is the golden hour to push reforms as commercial law’ as businesses and citizens have expectations in the government, added Thompson.
Arian Zeka, the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Kosovo said that despite many discussions about fighting corruption, there is still a lack of concrete results.
‘We experience the consequences of corruption every day as they are reflected in the way of doing business, in the quality of public services, in the field of education, health, use of public finances in the country and many other areas, he added.
According to him, there is a more positive spirit, however, the trust of businesses, institutions should respond with concrete actions.
He sees worrying the the phenomenon of non-reporting of corruption by businesses which even though declare that corruption is present, businesses hesitate to report it due to the inefficient judicial system as study reveals.
While business expectations are significantly higher for the new government based on the results of the conducted study, the lack of results could lead to greater disappointment in the coming years, therefore, state institutions have greater responsibility regarding this aspect, added Zeka.
Moreover, he said that auditing and accounting play an important role in combating the informal economy. Finally, he suggested a common regional market that would affect the prospect of doing business and also avoid stiff competition and the involvement of businesses in corruption activities.