POLITICAL PARTIES ARE THE MOST CORRUPT

Worldwide, in the six sectors identified to be affected by corruption in the Transparency International’s (TI) 2009 Global Corruption Barometer, 29 percent of respondents cited political parties as the single most corrupt institution, while 26 percent named civil service (public officials/ civil servants), 16 percent named parliament or legislature, 14 percent cited business or the private sector, 9 percent cited the judiciary, and 6 percent cited the media.

In the Philippines, 35 percent of respondents cited public officials and civil servants as the most corrupt, followed by political parties with 28 percent, legislature with 26 percent. Only 7 percent cited the judiciary, 3 percent for business and the private sector and 1 percent or media.

The Barometer presents the main findings of a public opinion survey that explores the general public’s views of corruption, as well as experiences of bribery around the world. It assesses the extent to which key institutions and public services are perceived to be corrupt, measures citizens’ views on government efforts to fight corruption, and this year, for the first time, includes questions about the level of state capture and people’s willingness to pay a premium for clean corporate behavior.

The Barometer is designed to complement the expert opinions on public sector corruption provided by TI’s Corruption Perceptions Index and the views of senior business executives on international bribery flows reflected in TI’s Bribe Payers Index. It also aims to provide information on trends in public perceptions of corruption. It enables assessments of change over time; in terms of the institutions deemed to be most corrupt, the effectiveness of governments’ efforts to fight corruption, and the proportion of citizens paying bribes.

The 2009 Barometer interviewed 73,132 people in 69 countries and territories between October 2008 and February 2009. The main findings are as follows:

Corruption in and by the private sector is of growing concern to the general public:
• The private sector is perceived to be corrupt by half of those interviewed: a notable increase of eight percentage points compared to five years ago.
• The general public is critical of the private sector’s role in their countries’ policy making processes. More than half of respondents held the view that bribery is often used to shape policies and regulations in companies’ favor.
• Corruption matters to consumers. Half of those interviewed expressed a willingness to pay a premium to buy from a company that is ‘corruption-free’.

Political parties and the civil service are perceived on average to be the most corrupt sectors around the world.
• Globally, respondents perceived political parties as the single most corrupt domestic institution, followed closely by the civil service.
• Aggregate results, however, mask important country differences. In 13 of the countries sampled, the private sector was deemed to be the most corrupt, while in 11 countries respondents identified the judiciary.

Experience of petty bribery is reported to be growing in some parts of the world – with the police the most likely recipients of bribes
• More than 1 in 10 people interviewed reported having paid a bribe in the previous 12 months, reflecting reported levels of bribery similar to those captured in the 2005 Barometer. For 4 in 10 respondents who paid bribes, payments amounted, on average, to around 10 per cent of their annual income.
• Results indicate that respondents from low-income households are more likely to pay bribes than those from high-income households when dealing with the police, the judiciary, land services and the education services.

Ordinary people do not feel empowered to speak out about corruption
• The general public does not routinely use formal channels to lodge bribery-related complaints: three quarters of people who reported paying bribes did not file a formal complaint.
• About half of bribery victims interviewed did not see existing complaint mechanisms as effective. This view was consistent regardless of gender, education or age.

Governments are considered to be ineffective in the fight against corruption – a view that has remained worryingly consistent in most countries over time
• Overall, the general public consider their governments’ efforts to tackle corruption to be ineffective. Only 31 per cent perceived them as effective, compared to the 56 per cent that viewed government anti-corruption measures to be ineffective. 77 percent of the respondents from the Philippines believe that the efforts of government to fight against corruption is ineffective.
• There were no major changes in recorded opinion on government anti-corruption efforts in 2009 when comparing those countries assessed in the last edition of the Barometer in 2007.

That is worth taking into consideration when we choose our leaders on this next election. Stop the motherhood statements and hasty generalizations about issues. The country is reeling ffrom poverty because of inequity of opportunities and government corruption. That begets moral decay pushing us further into crisis if we don't do anything and take action.