DISTINCTION BETWEEN CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS ON THE ETHICAL AND PRACTICAL LEVELS

Corruption is one of the persistent problems of the societies over the years and it affects the credibility of public institutions and its ambassadors in front of the citizens and of the other related countries. This phenomenon eludes the rules, the transparency and the impersonal and impartial aspect of public actions, but, also, the responsibility for all these irregularities, being the opposite of the public integrity concept. The paper tries to investigate if the ethical principle about bribe or, extensively, about corruption is put into practice in the same way as it is ethically perceived by the citizens of nations. After this comparison and taking into consideration the results from it, the paper reveals that the national integrity systems are key factors for the corruption phenomenon and can be real solutions for this if they are well designed and well implemented at the level of public sector.