Berlin: One person in four worldwide paid bribe during the past year while 54 per cent Indians say they greased the palms of authorities to get things done, says a study released today to mark International Anti-Corruption Day.
"Corruption has increased over the last three years, say
six out of 10 people around the world, and one in four people
report paying bribes in the last year," the Berlin-based non-
governmental agency, Transparency International (TI), said.
Releasing the findings of the 2010 Global Corruption
Barometer, a worldwide public opinion survey on corruption, TI
said it showed that in the past 12 months one in four people
paid bribe to one of nine institutions and services, from
health to education to tax authorities.
The police are named the most frequent recipient of
bribes, according to those surveyed, with 29 per cent of those
who had contact with the police reporting that they paid
bribe.
The biggest number of reported bribery payments in 2010
is in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Cameroon, India, Iraq, Liberia,
Nigeria, Palestine, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Uganda where
more than 50 per cent of people surveyed paid bribe in the
past 12 months.
In India, 54 per cent of users of services said they
paid bribe to receive attention from service providers.
Almost half of all respondents say they paid bribes to
avoid problems with the authorities and a quarter say it was
to speed up processes.
Most worrying is the fact that bribes to the police
have almost doubled since 2006, and more people report paying
bribes to the judiciary and for registry and permit services
than they did so five years ago, TI said.
Worldwide, sub-Saharan Africa was the region reporting
the greatest incidence of bribery with more than one person in
two saying they had made such payments to officials in the
past 12 months.
The Middle East and North Africa was the next most
corrupt regions with 36 per cent of people there reporting
having paid bribes.
This compared to 32 per cent in the former Soviet
republics, 23 per cent in South America, 19 per cent in the
Balkans and Turkey, 11 per cent in the Asia-Pacific region
and five per cent in the European Union and North America.
The United Nations established International
Anti-Corruption Day in 2003 to raise awareness of graft and
promote the global fight against it.
-PTI
