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KARACHI : The private sector uses bribes to influence public policy, laws and regulations, believe over half of those polled for 2009 Global Corruption Barometer. The Barometer, a global public opinion survey released on Wednesday by Transparency International (TI), also found that half of respondents expressed a willingness to pay a premium to buy from corruption-free companies.
"These results show a public sobered by a financial crisis precipitated by weak regulations and a lack of corporate accountability," said TI Chair Huguette Labelle. "But we also see that the public is willing to actively support clean business. What is needed now is bold action by companies to continue strengthening their policies and practices, and to report more transparently or finances and interactions with government."
The Barometer, with more than 73,000 respondents drawn from 69 countries and territories around the world, also found the poor to be disproportionately burdened by bribe demands. And it found that government efforts to combat corruption are generally perceived as ineffective, in addition to high levels of perceived corruption in political parties, parliaments and the civil service.
TI Pakistan Chairman Syed Adil Gilani said that the resistance towards anti-corruption measures from the public servant had pushed Pakistan to its present position as one of the most corrupt country and also perceived to be a breeding ground of terrorists.
Corruption in spending the 11 billion dollars aid given by US from 2002 to 2007 for fighting terrorism, has not only failed, but in fact it has caused suicide bombing, which has never occurred before 2002.
Political parties and the civil service are perceived on average to be the most corrupt sectors around the world Fieldwork was conducted between October 2008 and March 2009. As a public opinion survey, the Barometer reflects the views of a representative sample of each country's population aged 16 and over. In each country, the polling method was based on local conditions. Methods included face to face, telephone and online interviews.
Government anti-corruption efforts seen as ineffective Most of those polled also felt that existing channels for making corruption-related complaints were ineffective. Fewer than one in four who paid a bribe in the past year lodged a formal complaint, demonstrating serious deficits in the perceived legitimacy and effectiveness of channels for reporting and addressing bribery.
"Governments must listen closely to what ordinary people are reporting or face the consequences of an increasingly alienated and distrustful citizenry, said Labelle. Echoing the findings of past editions of the Barometer, 68 percent of respondents saw political parties as corrupt, and 29 percent saw them as the single most corrupt institution in their country.
The civil service and parliament trailed political parities, perceived by 63 and 60 percent of respondents respectively as being corrupt. The media, while not perceived as clean, scored best with just over 40 percent of respondents labelling the sector as corrupt and with only six percent seeing it as the single most corrupt domestic institution. Public demand for greater integrity in government and business.
The tragically familiar stories of this year's Barometer are the negative perceptions of public institutions and government anti-corruption efforts, and low-income households saddled with petty bribe payments for ostensibly free services. New this year was the increasingly critical view of the private sector and a public motivated to pay a premium for clean business. The 2009 Barometer makes clear that both the private and public sectors have a great deal of work to do to win back the public trust.-PR
Copyright Business Recorder, 2009
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