Police Most Corrupt •Says TI

THE GHANA Police Service, the legal/judiciary and political parties occupied the first, second and third positions respectively in this year's Global Corruption Barometer (GCB 2007) released by Transparency International in Berlin, Germany, on Thursday, ahead of the World Anti-corruption Day, which came off on Sunday, December 9, 2007.

The Ghanaian respondents surveyed for the GCB 2007 ranked the Police first with a score of 4.6 (out of a maximum score of 5 for very corrupt) as the institution that was most impacted by corruption.

The legal system/judiciary came second with a score of 3.7. Political parties scored 3.6 and were closely followed by the Legislature, registry and permit systems as well as revenue authorities (3.4).

The utilities' providers, the education system, the business/private sector and the media (with the medical system) scored 3.3, 3.2, 3.0 and 2.8, respectively.

The military scored 2.4 while the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and religious bodies scored the lowest (2.2).

In contrast to many other countries, 62 per cent of the respondents in Ghana were optimistic that levels of corruption in the country are likely to decrease in the coming years.

Similarly, 67 per cent of the respondents felt that government efforts to fight corruption were quite effective.

The GCB 2007, which is a public opinion survey on corruption, surveyed 63,199 respondents in 60 countries, including five African countries: Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, Cameroun and South Africa.

The GCB 2007 offers a broad spectrum of data on common experiences of corruption like which institutions most frequently demand bribes, where citizens see the greatest degree of corruption, and how they see both the future development of corruption and their governments' efforts to eradicate it.

The report stated that the poor are most often confronted with requests for bribes and so bribe paying and corruption pose a serious challenge to poverty reduction and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Ghana and Africa.

“In Ghana, it impacts negatively on government's efforts to make education and health service more accessible through policies such as the Capitation Grant, the School Feeding Programme and the National Health Insurance Scheme and would definitely reverse efforts at achieving the MDGs.

“There is a need for our politicians, political parties and Parliaments in Africa to do everything possible to disabuse the minds of citizens that they are the worse institutions that are tainted by corruption.”

It concluded that “Some of the African countries surveyed, Cameroun, Senegal and South Africa, are also more critical of governments' efforts at curbing bribery and corruption and pessimistic about future levels of corruption, painting a bleak future.

“Although there is a need for concerted action from all stakeholders, governments must provide the necessary leadership to bring an end to corruption and its terrible cost.”

That, the report stated, also required effective checks and balances that would make corruption a “high-risk” and “low-return” venture.

According to the survey, “The poor are the most penalised by corruption. They are also more pessimistic about the prospects for less corruption in the future”.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) used this opportunity, and especially as the World Anti-corruption Day was celebrated, to call on the government of President J.A. Kufuor, once again, to address the following:

To increase efforts to curb corruption in service delivery, especially in the education and health sectors, if Ghana hopes to achieve the MDGs by 2015; to address the weaknesses in the Whistle-blower Act, 2007 (Act 720) to make it possible for ordinary citizens take advantage of the law and help expose bribery and corruption.

It further called on government to fast-track the passage of a credible Freedom of Information Act and “To promptly address the problems of the Police and the Judiciary, including adjusting pay levels and other conditions of service as a way of curbing corruption in these institutions.”

The GCB 2007 reported that, on average, more than one in ten of the respondents had to pay a bribe in the past year to obtain a service.

Albania, Cameroun, FYR Macedonia, Kosovo, Nigeria, Philippines, Romania and Senegal are the most affected by petty bribery. Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland were least affected.

Respondents from low and middle income brackets are hit the hardest by petty bribery.

On whether a bribe was demanded from them when they had contact with key public services, citizens reported that contact with the Police involved the biggest bribery problem.

Globally, one in every four citizens who had contact with the Police was asked to pay a bribe and one of every six citizens really paid the bribe.

Although the Police are the institution most affected by bribery in five out of the seven regions (Africa, Asia-Pacific, NIS, Latin America and South East Europe), the medical services stand out in the EU countries as the most affected by bribery.

Secondly, petty corruption is a serious problem in the judiciary for countries from Latin America, Asia-Pacific and North America.

In addition, the Police are perceived to stand out as significantly more affected by corruption than other institutions and service sectors.

Likewise, while more than four in five respondents in Cameroun, Ghana, India and Nigeria consider the police to be corrupt, fewer than two in five in Denmark, Germany, Finland, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland report the same.

However, NGOs, religious bodies and the military lead the group of institutions perceived by citizens to be the least affected by corruption.

Over the past four years, public opinion about the private sector has deteriorated. Similarly, when compared with 2004, more people globally now consider NGOs to be corrupt.

More than half of the citizens polled around the world expect the level of corruption to increase over the next three years. India, Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, Netherlands and the United Kingdom are the most pessimistic.

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.

However, interviewees in Ghana, FYR Macedonia, Kosovo and Nigeria are more optimistic – with more than 45 per cent expecting corruption to decrease in the next three years.

Out of the African countries surveyed, Nigeria, Cameroun and Senegal were the most affected by petty bribery.

Only South Africa reported less bribery, with only 4–7 per cent of the respondents reporting having paid bribes in the past year.

On institutions perceived to be corrupt, the Police topped overall for Africa and in all the African countries, except Senegal where political parties came first and the Police scored second. Political parties also scored high in all the countries.

On average, all regions, except Africa, are very sceptical about the effectiveness of their governments' actions against corruption.

Cameroun (61%), South Africa (54%) and Senegal (56%) are more critical of governments' efforts. However, Ghana (67%) and Nigeria (68%) were found to be very positive.

Moreover, the GCB 2007 showed that three in ten Africans expect corruption levels to increase. In 2003, it was five out of ten.

Again, Ghana (62%) and Nigeria (62%) felt strongly that corruption in their countries would decrease in the next three years while Senegal (73%), Cameroun (65%) and South Africa (67%) felt that it would increase.