A survey on fraud and corruption conducted by the consultancy Ernst & Young puts Portugal in fifth place in the corruption league of 38 countries, surpassed only by Croatia, Kenya, Slovenia and Serbia.
The survey questioned workers from countries in Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa.
In Portugal, 83% said that bribery and corruption remain widespread.
"In the last year and a half, Portugal has been buffeted by corruption. Therefore, respondents will be more likely to respond in the affirmative to issues related to corruption and fraud, said Pedro Cunha, of Ernst & Young at the presentation of the survey results in Lisbon.
The worst country for corruption was Croatia where 92% of respondents said corruption was rife. This can be compared to 34% in Belgium, 26% in Germany, 11% in Finland and a further gold star for Denmark where only 4% of those surveyed said bribery and corruption are widespread.
In Portugal, 61% consider that there was a distortion of company financial results as a result of corruption and only 28% believed the business ethics of their organisation were "very good."
However, 25% of respondents in Portugal believe that there has been an improvement in business ethics over the past two years, especially in the financial sector due to requirements imposed by the Bank of Portugal.
Despite recent banking frauds and high profile bankruptcies, the financial services sector respondents in Portugal noted that their organisations at least have a policy of fraud prevention and a code of conduct.
For the full survey, click HERE
