The corruption meter

The PTI won the elections on the promise of eliminating corruption. The government sees the fulfilment of this promise through changes to the NAB law or asset recovery from offshore havens. But will the government be able to actually reduce corruption? The answer depends on our understanding of corruption and the way it’s measured.

There are multiple international data sets available to assess corruption such as the World Bank’s control of corruption estimates. But Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI), ranking Pakistan at 117 amongst 180 countries, is perhaps the most widely quoted source. Any improvement in this rank will, therefore, be the litmus test for the PTI government.



The CPI draws from 13 different data sources and covers a wide spectrum such as bribery, diversion of public funds, using public office for private gains, nepotism, etc. Corruption in Pakistan, however, is seen through a rather simplistic lens where a handful of powerful politicians and bureaucrats take hefty kickbacks and then accumulate their wealth overseas. But corruption has many other facets and each one requires a different approach to address.

For instance, corruption can either be ‘sporadic’ with isolated incidents of bribery, or ‘systemic’ that is commonly acceptable in a society and becomes a way of life, potentially plaguing a country. Pakistan unfortunately falls in the latter category.

According to Corruption Barometre 2017, 40% of people paid a bribe during the last 12 months when they came into contact with a public service. This increased to 75% in case of people dealing with the police, 68% for courts and 61% for utilities. While sporadic corruption might be handled with a push for more enforcement, systemic corruption requires a much more comprehensive solution.

Similarly, experts distinguish between large-scale and small-scale corruption. The large-scale corruption, also known as grand or political corruption, takes place through public tendering, mega projects with large public expenditure, appointments, licensing, etc. Such corruption can take the shape of bribes, embezzlement of state funds, exchange of favours or nepotism.

Controlling embezzlement in mega projects requires better financial controls while curtailing bribes in public contracts needs improvements in the public procurement regime. Open data, information disclosures and objective and transparent laws with little discretion can play a critical role in preventing extortion whereas a vigilant media can lead to reduced nepotism and patronage.

Petty or small-scale corruption takes place at the service delivery level. Speed money, a form of petty corruption, is a demand-driven phenomenon where people voluntarily pay a bribe to circumvent cumbersome procedures or avoid delays.

Interestingly, as per Corruption Barometre 2017, rich people were found paying bribes more frequently in Pakistan. Amongst the richest people accessing public services in the last 12 months, 64% paid a bribe as compared to only 26% amongst the poorest, showing how money can buy better services or preferential treatment.



This is not counter-intuitive. Anyone dealing with the police, land administration and courts know that without greasing palms, it is nearly impossible to sail through the system. It is, however, difficult to eliminate speed money, or petty corruption, without improving public service delivery.

Lastly, corruption can be driven either by need or desire. Low salaries are known to cause much of the need-driven corruption and, therefore, without improving public-sector salaries, such corruption can never be effectively addressed.

Going after political corruption can be a good deterrent but the government must realise that it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Considering that corruption in Pakistan is a multi-dimensional problem and is prevalent across all levels, a lot more is needed to move the needle on the corruption metre. 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2018.

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