WB: "No improvement in fighting corruption in Azerbaijan 2002-2005"

But the survey of more than 7,000 enterprises finds that corruption in post-communist countries is significantly higher than in Western Europe. It was found out that the bribes are?chiefly paid to officials.

Bribe paying has improved since an earlier report in 2002. World Bank says corruption in 26 former socialist countries has eased in recent years. The Kyrgyz Republic and Albania are among the countries where corruption is said to be getting worse. Albania is generally along most indicators the second worst after Kyrgyzstan and sometimes the worst, and is also not getting better. World Bank showed Slovakia and Estonia as an example who did a success.

They are among the transition countries that have moved to flat-rate taxation that both succeeded in tax collection and reduced tax evasion. According to the survey, Azerbaijan has also registered?no improvement in fighting corruption.

Armenia is in the same position too. Russia, Serbia, and Macedonia have also registered little progress with companies there reporting that bribes are often necessary to get things done, APA reports.