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Corruption As
A Worldwide Problem
Summary of findings of TI Global Corruption Barometer 2006 Transparency International’s (TI) Global Corruption Barometer 2006 (the Barometer) provides an indication of both the form and extent of corruption, from the viewpoint of citizens from around the world. It explores experience of petty bribery in greater depth than ever before, presenting information on the institutions and public services most affected by bribery, the frequency of bribery, and how much people pay. Conclusion – corruption as a worldwide problem |
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Overall, these results show that people everywhere see corruption as a major problem. While there are differences between countries in the extent to which people experience corruption in their everyday lives, there is a widespread perception that the authority vested in institutions that ought to represent the public interest is, in fact, being abused for private gain. Some of the important findings are summarized below. 1. Experience of bribery is much
more widespread in rest of the world than Europe and North America; police
are most often bribed.
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Bribery is much more widespread in rest of the world than Europe and North America; police are most often bribed. Corruption in many sectors: NGOs, religious bodies, police, civil service, military, education, the legal system/judiciary, media, parliament, legislature, health care and utilities is indicated |
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2. Government performance
in the fight against corruption is not felt adequate in most countries.
People around the world tend to be very negative about their government's
attempt to fight corruption. Despite relatively good scores on the Corruption
Perceptions Index 2006, nearly one in five respondents in the United States
and the United Kingdom think that their government encourages corruption
rather than fighting it.
3. The perception remains that political parties and parliament are most corrupt, followed by business and police 4. Political and business life are judged more affected by corruption than family life in most countries. Political life is viewed as being most affected by corruption, followed closely by the business environment. 5. Bribery of police worst the world over: According to the Global Corruption Barometer 2006, bribes are most commonly paid around the world to the police, and are substantially more frequent than to other services. This result presents enormous concerns regarding corruption in processes of law enforcement, particularly when viewed alongside the sector identified as the third most common recipient of bribes: the legal system and judiciary. 6. Bribery continues to plague people in poorer and transitional countries. Bribery in poor and transitional countries represents a major impediment, one that holds back human development and economic growth. The poorest in society are least able to afford to pay bribes and often must go without basic services as a result. And respondents in several African countries, such as Congo, Nigeria and Senegal, admitted to paying multiple bribes, indicating an even greater burden. 7. Bribery of Law Enforcers worst the
world over
8. Registrations and permits require
the biggest bribes
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Diplomacy means all the wicked devices of the Old World, spheres of influence, balances of power, secret treaties, triple alliances, and, during the interwar period, appeasement of Fascism. |
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7. Governments are underperforming in the fight against corruption The majority of people around the world have a poor opinion of their government's anti-corruption efforts. While one in five surveyed find government actions positive, more than half indicate that the government is not doing a good job. Perhaps most worrying is the fact that a full 15 percent of the public worldwide believe that not only is government not effective in its anti-corruption work, but that government is actually a source of the problem in that it encourages corruption. 8. Views on government efforts
and public sector corruption do not always align
9. Political parties and parliament
still viewed around the world as most corrupt
The Global Corruption Barometer 2006, now the fourth in the series, reflects the findings of a survey of 59,661 people in 62 low, middle and high-income countries. (End of Summary) Additional Notes
The list had contained in Transparency's Global Corruption Report 2004, which had singled out several countries in Latin America, Africa, central and eastern Europe, and East Asia for corrupt practices in their political systems. Peter Eigen, the then chairman of Transparency International, had said political corruption was undermining the stability of developing countries and damaging the global economy. Independent Asian observers, however, opined
that just as US, UK and some other rich Western and developed Asian countries
that excel in technology, also excel in corruption and employ such
sophisticated methods to steal public money that their chances of being
caught are much less than those of their Asian counterparts. The lies and
distortion about WMD and reasons for invading Iraq clear show, they say,
how
They also cite the views of Richard Rorty, Professor of comparative literature and philosophy at Stanford University who is attributed of saying: "We can, of course, continue to take justified pride in being citizens of a 200-year-old constitutional democracy. Yet our country can also be described, plausibly, as a corrupt plutocracy -- a country in which money buys nomination for high office, in which the rich routinely bribe the legislatures, and in which voter apathy is on the increase." Corruption is the single greatest obstacle to economic and social development The Word Bank has identified corruption as the single greatest obstacle to economic and social development. It undermines development by distorting the rule of law and weakening the institutional foundation on which economic growth depends. The harmful effects of corruption are especially severe on the poor, who are hardest hit by economic decline, are most reliant on the provision of public services, and are least capable of paying the extra costs associated with bribery, fraud, and the misappropriation of economic privileges. As pointed out by the World Bank, corruption sabotages policies and programs that aim to reduce poverty, so attacking corruption is critical to the achievement of the Bank's overarching mission of poverty reduction. We believe that an effective anticorruption strategy builds on five key elements: 1. Increasing Political Accountability
To reduce the corrosive impact of corruption
in a sustainable way, it is important to go beyond the symptoms to tackle
the causes of corruption. Since 1996, the World Bank has supported more
than 600 anticorruption programs and governance initiatives developed by
its member countries.
Shah Nawaz Khan has vast experience in marketing and supervising life insurance sales force besides underwriting and advertising. He retired as Executive Director of State Life Insurance Corporation. He is now editing the weekly ezines that go to thousands of people around the world. For details of his Internet Consultancy visit his website http://www.netvert.biz |