The main causes of corruption in Romania

Corruption is a mass phenomenon which can be almost harmless in small doses, but is able to undermine a country’s national economy once it is out of control, generating chaos and, in extreme cases, even civil wars. The phenomenon exists in all countries and all kinds of management regimes (democracy, totalitarism etc.). In Romania, corruption is caused by the low standard of living (compared with citizens of West-European countries), and also by the general mentality of people, which prove to be quite permissive and at large with the existence of the phenomenon.


Introduction
Corruption can be defined as "an abuse of power, committed in public office by an employee of the government, regardless of status, structure or hierarchical position in order to obtain personal profit, directly or indirectly, for himself or for another natural or legal person" (www.stopcoruptiei.ro,2016).
Corruption in Romania has started to become a more and more visible issue during recent years.Until now, anti-corruption strategy has been through several stages, represented by the approval of four sets of strategic anti-corruption documents (National Anti-Corruption Strategies in 2001, 2005, 2008 and 2012), as well as the adoption of more than 150 laws in this regard (Păunescu et al., 2012).Since corruption is not a singular phenomenon, existing in all countries, it can be characterized as a transnational phenomenon.In this context, the world's most powerful countries have reacted and tried to take various measures to prevent and combat corruption.The UN General Assembly in December 2000 sent an invitation to all states to develop an international legal instrument against corruption (UN, 2001).The initiative emerged from the conference that took place during 9-11 December 2003, which has led to the UN Convention against Corruption.Following the steps that the United Nations have taken to fight corruption, the European Commission signed the Convention on behalf of the European Community in 2008 (EC, 2008).
According to Rumyantseva (2005), if a country has a high level of corruption, it most likely will spread inside the education system, especially at university level.At first, problems arise in the process of financial resources allocation for the education ministry or for other institutions responsible with the funding of the education system, and the issue will be gradually transferred to the younger generations, who will leave school easily.According to Andrei, Matei and Roşca (2008), the media has an important role in reducing corruption levels, which, in highly corrupt countries, most often tends to misreport the actual size of the corruption.Shah (2006) depicts the manner in which the effect of decentralization can become a favouring factor for the development of corruption.When the powers and responsibilities migrate from central to local systems, corruption becomes increasingly difficult to control, due to the multiple specificities of each sector, as well as the local customs.
Rose-Ackerman (2005) shows the correlation between corruption and government.From his point of view, the higher the level of corruption in a country is, the more investment and economic growth are perturbed, proving the inability and inefficiency of the government to ensure optimal living standards for citizens.Matei (2008), after a set of studies on corruption, concluded there is a strong correlation between this phenomenon and political instability.A relevant theory on corruption cannot be developed only based on statistics, since corruption is a very complex phenomenon.To achieve a greater degree of accuracy, the phenomenon should be analysed following the main types of corruption.For example, public institutions, the employed state officials are both men and women.Although corruption is developed enough that a classification based on sex is not possible, Mihăilă (2011), shows a different behaviour on this phenomenon among the two mentioned categories of civil servants.Also, Alolo (2007) shows that for women, mercy and compassion can be a motivation to adopt corrupt behaviour, while for men, the desire to become rich as fast as possible can be a motivation strong enough to practice a corruptible behaviour.
Corruption, by its nature, creates a climate of instability and significantly reduces foreign investment.However, some foreign investors choose to create partnerships with local companies in their field to gain some "immunity" against corrupt politicians (Ionescu, Lăzăroiu and George, 2012).Heckelman and Powell (2010) studied the correlation between the spread of corruption and the economic development of a country, when corruption in both public institutions and the private sector is at high levels.The results showed that high levels of corruption are an obstacle for both sides, and maintenance of high levels of corruption would harm all the stakeholders, including the population.
Even if corruption brings harm to all, very few of us think about the causal link between low pensions and tax evasion, or the link between a fictitious medical prescription and insufficient funds for covering free medication.The unemployed rarely blames the employer who uses illegal labour for the lack of jobs.And yet, tax evasion is what led to tax increases, thus entailing a decreased supply of jobs and ultimately corruption as result of this process.

Methodology
The purpose of this research is a continuation of a previous study (Duţulescu 2016), which analyses the phenomenon of corruption in all counties in Romania.This research aims to research deeper into the main causes and mechanisms that are responsible for the size of high corruption in Romania.In this respect, it is also pursuing the specifics of Romanian society, when compared to other European Union countries, where corruption has a much lower level.Special emphasis is put on the economic side, and the negative effects this phenomenon exhibits.
In order to get a more objective approach, the number of final convictions for acts of corruption within the period 2010-2014, published by National Anticorruption Directorate (NAD), was used as the dependent variable, to which five other independent variables were added.The first and most important variable is related to poverty (GDP per capita) and the following variables are the Level of education, expressed as the minimum share of the total population of each county having a high school education and the Share of employees in the public sector in total employment in the county.The last two variables, the Average duration of a corruption trial and the Average punishment term for corruption depict an important component of the justice system, which, by its courts, leads the struggle against corruption.Both variables are expressed in months, and depict the amount of time that elapses from the prosecution of a person for corruption until conviction, respectively the length of time for which a convicted person will spend in prison.In this way, corruption is viewed from multiple perspectives, and through the convergence of those perspectives, it can be established with far greater accuracy which are the determinant elements, or incentives for the development of this phenomenon, faced not only by Romanian companies but at a global level as well.The values of all the five independent variables relate to 2014.As sources for the values of the variables, data provided by the National Institute of Statistics, the Academic Society of Romania and the Romaniacurata.rowebsite was used.The three aforementioned sources published information about the activity of the NAD, along with the analyses provided by the analizeeconomice.rowebsite.
Empirical correlations between the first pair of variables (GDP per capita and the Level of education) will be performed, in order to make judgments about the educational component.This, as well as the others, are tightly related to the economic component, in the absence of which no other component could function.
The next set of correlations will focus on the link between the Duration of a trial and the Duration of the penalty.Although both variables are important indicators for the justice system, the economic component again has an essential role, as the permanent fight against corruption involves consistent allocation of economic resources by the government.Correlation between the last two variables is an attempt to verify the effectiveness of the judicial system.In this regard, a table will be drawn up with counties where corruption is fought effectively, a very important aspect in determining the root causes of corruption.
Using the statistical tools provided by the Microsoft Excel software, the analysed variables will be processed, so as a correlation matrix will result, that will provide the correlation coefficients for each of the five independent variables and the dependent variable.Correlation coefficient values will be applied to the initial values of the independent variables, so each territorial unit under review will receive a score.The 42 territorial units (41 counties + Bucharest) will be grouped into three areas."Zone 0" will include territorial units that record the highest score, which means that they have the most reduced level of corruption; "zone 1" will include the territorial units where the estimated size of corruption is average; the counties where corruption is estimated to be at the highest levels will be included in "zone 2".The whole scientific endeavour will be completed with a table that summarizes the research and provides a ranking of each county, based on an estimated level of corruption.

Results and discussions
Following the collection, structuring and processing of information for each analysed variable, a database was obtained, that was summarized in The variable describing the percentage of people who have at least graduated from high school is closely related to variable GDP per capita, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The correlation between education level and GDP per capita
Source: Authors' processing

Figure 2. The correlation between education level and GDP per capita
Source: Authors' processing The more a county succeeds in generating a higher standard of living for the population, the more society becomes interested in educating children, given that people with higher education can bring added-value to the community they are part of, more than uneducated people.On the other hand, even a person with high school education can easily understand and better realize the negative effects of corruption, unlike a person with only lower secondary education or less.In Figure 2 there was depicted the correlation between the average duration of a corruption trial and the average length of the received prison time.
Unfortunately, the Romanian judicial system has still many aspects to be improved, as evidenced by the fact that the average duration of a trial (40.11 months) is greater than the average length of a sentence (32.92 months).This is basically a waste of resources, which is reflected in people's welfare.From this point of view there are some good examples, like the county of Ialomiţa, where the difference between the average duration of a trial (81.38 months) and the average length of a sentence (32.82 months) is highest of all the analysed counties: 48.56 months.A particular situation can be found in Maramureş County, where the average length of a trial is 4 times greater than the average length of a sentence (15.01 months).This chart of inefficiency in the allocation of resources to fight corruption is joined by Bucharest, where the average duration of a trial (73.88 months) is more than 2 times higher than the average length of a sentence (32.61 months).However, the capital city is a particular case, although it has the highest GDP per capita in the country and the highest level in terms of education (59.01%), it manages to encounter difficulties in the administration of justice, which can be also blamed on the large number of cases (887).
There are some counties where the average sentence is greater than the average duration of the process.These 15 counties were grouped in Table 2.It can be noticed that in this top 15 counties, only one is from Moldova, the county of Galaţi, which leads to the conclusion that in Moldova there are still serious issues with the fight against corruption, as it is carried out by the courts.The main cause of the low level of corruption in these 15 counties is their economic potential, the average GDP per capita is nearly 500 Euro higher than the national average, while the level of higher education has values 1.52 percent over the national average.These counties also recorded very good results for the share of government employees in total employment, in amount of 25.72%, as opposed to the national average which is 27.29%.In Figure 3, the correlation matrix is depicted, which reflects the degree of influence each variable has over the size of corruption, as expressed by the dependent variable "number of convicted persons".After building this correlation matrix, one can find that the greatest impact on corruption is inflicted by the GDP per capita component, followed by the education level and the medium duration of a trial.A brief conclusion is that people are encouraged to commit acts of corruption when they have a lower standard of living.They do not fully realize the negative effects that widespread corruption could generate and are also "encouraged" to commit such acts by the weaknesses in the judicial system.The social component, the percentage of total employees in the public sector is not a determining factor in sizing corruption, the social causes able to influence corruption level being behaviour, awareness and education.A high proportion of the employees in the public sector can indirectly foster the development of corruption, in that it will require a higher financial effort from the government, in order to maintain the budgetary system, which would affect the standard of living for the entire population, thus fighting corruption would be carried out with difficulty due to lack of funds.After applying the correlation coefficients on the variables' values, a ranking of the 42 analysed territorial units resulted, summarizing the entire scientific endeavour, as depicted in Table 3.

Figure 3. The correlation matrix for the main variables
With reference to the number of convictions for corruption, Bucharest is in the first position and at the same time it is placed in zone 0. The explanation is that, unlike all the other counties, Bucharest is a metropolis with over two million inhabitants.In the same time, it is a pole of economic development for the whole country, so the main variables that the authors referred to have record levels (like 19,711 Euro for the GDP per capita, and 59.01% of the population having at least a secondary degree, respectively).Another feature of Zone 0 is that it does not include any county in Moldova, the highest rated districts being Iaşi (28.28 points) and Bacău (28.08 points) in positions 22 and 23 of Zone 1.
The last position is also taken by a county in Moldova, Vaslui, with a score of 20.23 points, which leads the conclusion that the North-East area of the country has not only a set of issues in the judicial system, but also a level of corruption often located very high.The most likely cause is the high level of poverty in this area, the average GDP per capita being over 1,600 Euro less than the national average.The situation is similar for the Level of education variable, where the percentage for Moldova is only 27.21%, as compared to a national average of 34.31%.
The maximum amplitude is 44.54 points, the difference between Bucharest's score (64.77 points) and Vaslui (20.23 points), and if we exclude the capital city and refer only to counties, this magnitude is 26.48 points (between Ialomiţa and Vaslui).
In the future, the authors intend to carry out a study which will include at least two quantitative variables for each dimension of corruption, which will focus on the main geographical areas of Banat, Bucovina, Crişana, Dobrogea, Moldova, Muntenia, Oltenia and Transylvania, so that a more complete picture on the dispersion corruption throughout Romania will result.

Conclusions
The most important reason that stimulates the development of corruption at a national level is poverty, represented in the current research by the GDP per capita variable.Other causes having a determinant role over the scale of corruption, as evidenced by this study, are the level of people's education and the duration of a trial that results in a sentence of imprisonment for corruption.
The main conclusion is that most people commit acts of corruption to be able to secure a decent standard of living, and they do not realize the negative effects of such acts.On the one hand, they hurt themselves because they become exposed to high risks.Also, they hurt the entire society, as a high level of corruption will never ensure prosperity within the community.
Another aggravating factor is the inefficiency of justice which, most often due to objective reasons, is unable to complete a case of corruption in a reasonable timeframe.Once the average duration for completion of a case of corruption would diminish substantially and information about more cases of corruption would reach the public, people would begin to realize the danger of this phenomenon and in the same time they would become more reluctant in manifesting corruption or corruptive behaviour when opportunity arises.The area most affected by corruption is Moldova, which can be very clearly seen in the living standard and the education level, while the lowest levels of corruption are recorded in the capital and the counties in the western part of the country (Timiş, Cluj, Arad etc.).
The variable describing the share of the public sector in total employment assumes the lowest values for counties in Zone 0 (24.07%),4.46 percent less than the counties in Zone 1, and 5.19 percent less than the counties in Zone 2.
Aside from the GDP per capita, which has significantly higher values for the territorial units in Zone 0, as opposed to Zones 1 and 2, even for the level of higher education variable, values are quite different.Thus in Zone 0, the percentage of people who have graduated at least high school is 26.54% higher than in Zone 1 and 30.10% higher than in Zone 2.
A solution to discourage corruption could be the tightening of the legislation regarding penalties for corruption, allowing magistrates to convict the guilty to a much higher sentence, so as to discourage them from committing acts of corruption.
The current research shows that only in 4 counties the average sentence is longer than 40 months (Ilfov -44.09 months, Galaţi -41.57months, Gorj -40.86 months and Constanţa -40.1 months).This result allows the authors to anticipate that a significant increase of these durations could have a strong and fast impact on corruption.
The most dramatic effect that corruption generates is that an important part of the resources managed by the public authorities, instead of being directed to their intended purposes, go to completely different directions, generating indignation, distrust and a climate of uncertainty among the population that most often commits to corruption for the desire to secure a decent living.

Table 1 ,
the five independent variables largely cover almost all the areas where corruption exists.The first and the most important variable (GDP per capita) reveals the economic side of corruption.The percentage of people who have at least graduated from high school (Level of education) illustrates the educational side.Share of public sector in total employment develops the social side.The last two variables (Average trial duration and Average penalty) depict the activity of courts in fighting this phenomenon.