Party funding to get contracts widespread in Malta

An absolute majority of Maltese businesses believe that funding political parties in exchange for public contracts or influence over policy making is widespread in their country.

This emerges from a Eurobarometer survey based on interviews with 252 companies in Malta carried out in April. The results show that 52% of businesses believe party donations are a means to acquire public contracts.

Maltese companies rank in third place behind those in Romania (55%) and those in Slovakia (54%) to believe that this practice is widespread in their country. The EU average stands at 36%.

The practice also emerges as the highest-ranking corrupt practice in Malta, and is deemed to be more prevalent than offering  a free gift or trip in exchange for a service (20%) and favouring friends or family members in business (46%) or public institutions (46%).

Moreover, while in the EU, 29% believe that bribery through gifts is widespread, in Malta the percentage of respondents who believe so drops to 20%.

72% of the Maltese companies interviewed also believe that links that are too close between business and politics in their country leads to corruption. But Maltese businesses were less likely to express this judgement than their counterparts in Greece (93%), Bulgaria (92%), Cyprus (91%) and Spain (90%).

And only 30% of Maltese companies agree that the only way to succeed in business is to have political connections compared to 40% in the EU.

Only 36% of Maltese respondents, compared to 51% in the EU, believe businesses engaging in corrupt practices will be caught by or reported to the police or prosecutors.

Moreover, only 35% of Maltese business owners believe that people engaged in corruption will be heavily fined or imprisoned by a court.

But compared to 2023, the proportion of Maltese companies thinking it is likely that individuals and businesses engaging in corrupt practices will be heavily fined or imprisoned by a court has increased by 12 points from just 23% in 2023 to 35% now.

Moreover, Maltese respondents are now more likely than in 2023 to agree that, in their country, people and businesses caught for petty corruption are appropriately punished (+15 pp, to 56%).

When asked whether in the last three years, corruption has prevented their company from winning a public tender or a public procurement contract, 26% of Maltese companies replied that this was the case. But only 2% replied that they have been asked to give a gift, favour or extra money for a permit or services.

Companies in this survey were asked about the minimum value at which they would consider a gift or service received by a public official in return for a favour to be a bribe.

Only 20% of Maltese businesses believe that any gift, even one with no monetary value, is a bribe while 36% believe that any monetary gift, even if less than €50 is a bribe.  Additionally, 35% believe that any gift over €100 is a bribe.