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The worldwide hurdle of corruption

BERLIN: Some of the world’s poorest people in Africa and Asia are the hardest hit by public corruption — forced to pay bribes for police protection, education and justice — according to a survey released on Thursday.

Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International’s 2007 Global Corruption Barometer showed that as a region, Africa suffered the most public corruption. In the African countries surveyed, 42 per cent of people reported that they had been asked to pay a bribe to obtain a service during the past 12 months.

The Asia-Pacific region was next with 22 per cent; then a grouping of Russia, Moldova and Ukraine with 21 per cent; Latin America with 13 per cent; southeastern Europe with 12 per cent; the European Union with 5 per cent; and North America with 2 per cent.

“Poor families are hit hardest by demands for bribes,” the organisation said in a summary of its report.

“This year’s Global Corruption Barometer has made it clear that too often, people must part with their hard-earned money to pay for services that should be free,” organisation chairman Huguette Labelle said in a statement.

The survey of more than 63,199 people in 60 countries, compiled by the polling agency Gallup, found that a majority believe corruption in general is on the rise, and they consider politics the most graft-ridden sector.

Some 54 per cent said they expect the level of corruption to increase in the next three years, 26 per cent said it would stay the same, while 20 per cent said it would decrease.

Slightly less than 70 per cent said political parties were the most corrupt institutions, followed by about 55 per cent who said parliament or the country’s legislature was the most corrupt, narrowly trailed by just over 50 per cent citing police departments.

The figures total more than 100 per cent because people gave multiple answers about where they paid bribes.

Of the countries and territories where interviews were carried out, Cameroon fared the worst, with 79 per cent of respondents saying they had paid a bribe to obtain services. They were followed by 72 per cent of Cambodians, 71 per cent of Albanians, 67 per cent from Kosovo; both Macedonia and Pakistan registered 44 per cent.

Romania registered the highest levels of corruption inside the European Union, with one in three Romanians saying they paid bribes in 2007 — a higher rate than last year, before Romania joined the European Union, when one in five said they paid bribes, said Victor Alistar, who heads the Romanian branch of Transparency International.

Canada, Japan, South Korea, Austria, France, Iceland, Sweden and Switzerland fared the best overall, with only 1 per cent of respondents saying they had paid a bribe. The United States, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Britain did only slightly worse with 2 per cent. The study found overall that police departments were the most corrupt, with one in four respondents around the world who had contact with police being asked to pay a bribe — and one in six ending up paying up.

Police departments were followed by the judiciary, permit and registration services, the education system and medical services.

“The fact that health and education and the judiciary and the police is where there is a great demand for bribes... is something we need to look at and be very concerned about, because this is something that touches people every day,” Ms. Labelle said. “I think it is extremely worrisome and it is even dangerous to life if people are asked to pay bribes for essential services.”

This year’s survey was done between June and September 2007. It has been carried out yearly since 2003. — AP

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