More than half of UK construction professionals feel corruption is rife in their own industry, a Chartered Institute of Building survey showed.
About 51% of 1,400 construction professionals questioned by the institute said corrupt practices were common.
About three-quarters of the construction professionals surveyed said the employment of illegal workers was widespread.
Six out of 10 felt fraud was prevalent, and 41% said they had been personally offered a bribe.
Michael Brown, deputy chief executive of the institute, said: “People define corruption in different ways.
“What is corrupt to one person might be common practice or just how it has always been done to another.
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“While the majority of respondents recognised corrupt practices for what they were, there was a concerning level of people who thought, for example, that producing a fraudulent invoice was not corrupt, or that using bribery to obtain a contract was also not a particularly corrupt practice.
“We clearly have some way to go as an industry to make ethical construction the only construction.”
