India ninth-most corrupt country: Survey-10 Dec, 2010,

10 Dec, 2010, 01.46AM IST,ET Bureau

India ninth-most corrupt country: Survey


NEW DELHI: About 54% Indians paid a bribe in the past year, according to a global survey by Transparency International (TI), which pegs the extent of corruption in India at levels comparable with Cambodia, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Senegal, Uganda and Liberia.

TI’s Global Corruption Barometer survey, released on global anti-corruption day, measures public perception on corruption across the world. One metric asks respondents if they had paid a bribe during the past 12 months to providers of any one of the nine services such as education, judiciary, medical services, police, registry and permit services, utilities, tax revenue and customs.

By this metric, India is the ninth most corrupt country in the world, in a ranking of 86 countries, with 54% of people reporting having paid a bribe. War-torn Iraq (56%) and Afghanistan (61%) suffer worse levels than India, as do nations such as Liberia (89%), Uganda (86%), Nigeria (63%), Sierra Leone (71%), Senegal (56%) and Cambodia (84%).

The world average is 25%, while the Asia Pacific average is 11%. The European Union enjoys an average of 5%, as does North America (Canada is marginally less corrupt than the United States), while Latin America and North Africa reported an average of 36%. Sub Saharan Africa has an average of 56%, compared with India’s 54%.

The perception of pervasive corruption matches the story painted by the media, which reported high-profile scams, including the Commonwealth Games organising and the 2G-spectrum allocation. The survey confirms that petty corruption is also endemic in India.

Indians perceived political parties to be the most corrupt, ranking them 4.2 on a scale of one to five. Political parties are followed by Police (4.1), Parliament/legislature (4) and civil servants (3.5). Private sector, NGOs and judiciary are all seen to be similarly corrupt (3.1), with the media enjoying a marginally better rating at 3. Military (2.8) and religious bodies (2.9) enjoy better public confidence.

Seventy-four percent Indians believed that levels of corruption has increased during the last three years, compared with a world average of 56% and Asia-Pacific average of 47%. In India, 1,000 urban respondents were queried for the survey that had 91,000 participants world-wide.

“Most people interviewed this year perceive an increase in corruption levels in their countries in the past three years. This sends a clear message to leaders around the world that corruption continues to plague societies everywhere,” the report said.