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THE
Philippines is perceived to be among the countries with
the highest incidence of petty bribery, the results of a
new poll conducted by Transparency International (TI)
showed.
TI’s
Global Corruption Barometer 2007, launched on Thursday,
also reflected a high level of pessimism in the
Philippine government’s capability to fight corruption,
similar to the sentiments of other nationals about their
governments in most parts of the world.
Among
the key findings of the Global Corruption Barometer 2007
are that the poor are more pessimistic about corruption
levels in the future; one in 10 people around the world
had to pay a bribe in the past year; reported bribery
has increased in some regions, such as Asia-Pacific and
Southeast Europe; and bribery is particularly widespread
in interactions with the police, the judiciary, and
registry and permit services.
The poll
also showed that “the general public believe political
parties, parliament, the police and the judicial/legal
system are the most corrupt institutions in their
societies.”
Among
the findings of the public-opinion survey, a cumulation
of interviews with 63,199 people in 60 countries and
territories between June and September 2007, is that in
many regions, “public expectations about the extent of
corruption in the future have become gloomier over
time.”
The
Barometer listed the countries most affected by petty
bribery as Albania, Cameroon, FYR Macedonia, Kosovo,
Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Romania and Senegal.
These
countries comprise the top quintile or those where more
than 33 percent of respondents reported paying a bribe
to obtain a service.
In the
second quintile (21 to 33 percent) are Bolivia,
Dominican Republic, Greece, India, Indonesia, Lithuania,
Moldova, Peru, Serbia and Ukraine; and in the third
quintile (6 to 21 percent), Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech
Republic, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Panama, Russia, Turkey,
Venezuela and Vietnam.
Countries where only 4 percent to 6 percent of
respondents reported paying a bribe to obtain a service
are Argentina, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Finland, Hong Kong,
Ireland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, the United
Kingdom and the United States; while the countries with
the least incidence of petty bribery (less than 4
percent) are Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland,
Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Sweden, and
Switzerland.
In its
summary, TI said global expectations of higher levels of
corruption rose in 2007 to 54 percent from 43 percent in
2003, though levels vary from region to region.
It said
that in contrast with
Africa, where
there seems to be greater optimism in terms of fighting
corruption, people’s expectations in the Asia-Pacific
region “have substantially deteriorated.”
“In
2003, just three out of 10 expected corruption in their
countries to increase. By 2007 a full six out of 10 in
Asia-Pacific countries expect that corruption levels
will be worse in the future. Likewise, in comparison to
2003, a bigger proportion of citizens in Latin America
and the EU+ now expect that corruption will increase in
their country in the near future,” it said.
Asked
how they felt about corruption levels in the next three
years, Filipinos were the second most pessimistic among
all the nationalities polled, as 79 percent foresee
corruption to increase, 19 percent say it would
decrease, while 2 percent believe it would stay the
same.
The
Barometer showed the Philippines coming second only to
India, where 90 percent of the respondents believe that
corruption in their country would worsen in the next
three years.
The
other most pessimistic countries in terms of corruption
levels are Senegal, South Africa, the Netherlands and
the United Kingdom, “where more than 70 percent of the
respondents expect the level of corruption to increase
in the coming three years” while respondents in Ghana,
FYR Macedonia, Kosovo and Nigeria are “more optimistic
with more than 45 percent expecting corruption to
decrease in the next three years.”
TI said
the Barometer showed that “more than half of the
citizens polled around the world expect the level of
corruption to increase to some degree over the next
three years.”
“Only
one in every five respondents expected the level of
corruption to decrease in the near future, while one in
four expect the level of corruption to be the same,” TI
said.
It said
that on the average, all regions except
Africa are very skeptical about the effectiveness of their
government’s anticorruption program.
Countries who believe government efforts to fight
corruption are most effective are Colombia, Dominican
Republic, Ecuador, FYR Macedonia, Ghana, Hong Kong,
Ireland, Malaysia, Nigeria, Singapore, and Turkey, while
those who believe otherwise are Albania, Argentina,
Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Iceland, Japan, Lithuania,
Norway, Peru, Russia, Ukraine and the United States.
Sixty-four percent of Filipinos believe that the
government’s fight against corruption is ineffective,
putting it on a par with the United Kingdom, Portugal,
and the Czech Republic, where the same percentage of
respondents had the same answer with regard to their
respective governments.
In this
aspect, the Philippines rated better than Germany and
Lithuania, where 77 percent of the respondents believe
their government’s anti-corruption measures to be
ineffective; Japan (75 percent); Argentina (73
percent); Bulgaria (72 percent); Italy and Ukraine (70
percent); South Korea (69 percent); and India (68
percent).
This
year’s Global Corruption Barometer, began in 2003,
evaluates the sentiments of ordinary people on the
impact of corruption.
TI said
in its executive summary that the Barometer “explores
how corruption affects the daily lives of ordinary
citizens, asking about the general public’s attitudes
toward corruption, the extent to which they believe
corruption pervades public institutions, their
experience with petty bribery and their sense of how the
fight against corruption will fare in the future.”
The
Barometer was conducted on behalf of TI by Gallup
International Association as part of its Voice of the
People Survey; in other countries, TI commissions
polling organisations to run the survey specifically
for the Barometer. A standard margin of error for the
survey is +/- 4. |
