Transparency International: Global survey shows bribery rampant

KARACHI:

More than one person in two thinks corruption has worsened in the last two years, according to the world’s largest public opinion survey on corruption from Transparency International (TI), but survey participants also firmly believe they can make a difference and have the will to take action against graft.

The Global Corruption Barometer 2013 is a survey of 114,000 people in 107 countries. 27 per cent of the respondents have paid a bribe when accessing public services and institutions in the last 12 months, revealing no improvement from previous surveys, TI reported.

Still, however, nearly 9 out of 10 people surveyed said that they would act against corruption and two-thirds of those asked to pay a bribe had refused, suggesting that government, civil society and the business sector needed to do more to engage people in thwarting the societal evil.

“Bribe paying levels remain very high worldwide, but people believe they have the power to stop corruption and the number of those willing to combat the abuse of power, secret dealings and bribery is significant,” said Huguette Labelle, the Chair of Transparency International.

The Global Corruption Barometer 2013 also found that in a number of countries, the institutions people rely on to fight corruption and other crime are themselves not trusted.

Thirty-six countries view police as the most corrupt, and in those countries an average of 53 per cent of the people had been asked to pay a bribe to the police. Twenty countries view the judiciary as the most corrupt, and in those countries an average of 30 per cent of the people who had come in contact with the judicial systems had been asked to pay a bribe.

Syed Adil Gilani, adviser TI Pakistan, expects that the PML-N government will adhere to the promises made in their election manifesto of ‘zero tolerance to corruption’ in Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th, 2013.