Sheet 83
PERCEPTIONS REGARDING CORRUPTION
Recently, numerous surveys have been conducted on the issue of bribery and corruption in governments throughout the world. The method in which most of these surveys have been carried out has been to ask people engaged in international business their perceptions of the corruption of government officials. As business activities by private enterprises expand across the globe, more and more people are paying attention to the extent in which government officials in different countries are corrupt.
Enterprises which conduct business on a global basis, often avoid entering the market of countries whose governments are perceived to be highly corrupt. The invisible costs and risk entailed may restrain their business activities in countries such as these. Certain governments have taken the results of these surveys very seriously and have tried to raise their credibility.
Let's take a look at some of the most recent surveys undertaken into the corruption of governments.
1 Corruption in Asian Countries
A consultancy firm in Hong Kong regularly conducts surveys into how people doing business in Asia perceive corruption among government employees in 12 countries/regions of Asia. The survey is conducted regularly.
The survey undertaken in 1996 indicates that the integrity of government officials within these 12 countries/regions is perceived to rank as follows.(from highest to lowest)
Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan,
Thailand, India, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, China
2 Perceptions of Corruption Index
Transparency International, a non-governmental organization whose headquarters are located in Berlin, conducts surveys into corruption in countries worldwide. They question business people, political analysts and the general public on their perceptions of government corruption and maintain an updated index to reflect these perceptions. Surveys are conducted on an annual basis. The following is the result of the 1997 survey which collected data from 52 countries across the world.
・Perceptions of corruption index - Top 10(The higher the index figure the higher the integrity. The top grade possible in this index is 10)
Denmark 9.94
Finland 9.48
Sweden 9.35
New Zealand 9.23
Canada 9.10
The Netherlands 9.03
Norway 8.92
Australia 8.86
Singapore 8.66
Luxembourg 8.61
・Perceptions of corruption index - Worst 10
Nigeria 1.76
Bolivia 2.05
Columbia 2.23
Russia 2.27
Pakistan 2.53
Mexico 2.66
Indonesia 2.72
India 2.75
Venezuela 2.77
Vietnam 2.79
The index grade for Japan was 6.57, and it ranked 21st overall. The result of this survey is made public through the home page of Transparency International.
(http://www.transparency.de/)
