How much? Well we say its typically 30% of the project budget for the managing agencies, the commission that decides and program owner. All participants should share in form of bribes of all the managers involved, including the government agencies, the private agencies and state representatives. But I would say even higher number is quite possible if prices in the budgets are manipulated.
We are eastern Europe. We were used to stealing. Used to bribes. When we wanted to buy meat during the communism, we had to bribe the butcher, as there was limited offer and only the butcher had access to resources. Same with doctors. Teachers. Military officers. Police. Judges. Communist party members (all of them). We had to bribe when we wanted to visit Yugoslavia for holiday to get the permittion for crossing the border. When our sons or daughters didn't pass the Anatomy subject on the medicine school. When we got caught by the police for driving without seat belts. When you wanted a better job, you had to know someone. And bribe someone. Everywhere and everyone was giving bribes. Everyone had his/her price. If you wanted to achieve something, you had to accept the system.
There was a common saying in our republic, that if you are not stealing from your factory, you are robbing your family.
And so we were doing it. Absolutely non effective state owned companies, where no one had the responsibility and no one cared. We haven't changed our mindset a lot since the 1989. Remember, that our elites of the present are the most successful thefts from the past. The bribery and corruption is enrooted in our culture and still had not vanished. The EU in combination with the NATO membership has provided us safety shield and window of opportunity for skyrocketing economic growth. We are aligned with the Germany's economy and enjoy the fruits. Yet, we disagree on many levels. We don't want to help Greece, we don't want to accept immigrants but we want EU funds. I ask you, to stop it.
The EU funds has done a lot of help to our country and in case they were used properly they created a value in extreme short times. This value would have taken many years to be created with our own resources. But this is exactly the space for bribery. When you provide a massive amount of funds to such a culture, the first to take advantage of it would be the corrupted elite. Only after they are fullfilled, the plebs can reach to funds too. But they seem to never have enough. Now you are basically financing the ruling government parties and its affiliates. Look at the cars in Bratislava. Is it normal that we drive so many Porsche Cayennes? So Many AMG's Mercedes Benz? So many BMWs? My secret guess is the state owned companies and EU funds.
Although, we may disagree on many things with you, such Common Agricultural Policy that has basically destroyed our agriculture, but we still have become a part of the "west" thanks to the institutional stability and democratic demands on such requested from Brussels. You may have your diseases to cure and there are quite a lot of them. Yet, the EU funds have become our disease and they are not helping anymore.
We have already moved forward and now its time to stop the funds flow to Slovakia
Check our corruption in medias here: https://spectator.sme.sk/t/42/corruption-scandals
More report on Slovak corruption here: https://www.transparency.org/country/SVK
