The latest survey on
corruption in southern Africa indicates that
56 per cent of citizens who have been in contact with service providers have
paid bribes.
This is according to a
survey, by the International Anti-Corruption (NGO), Transparency International
which was launched in Maputo
yesterday (Tuesday).. The date to launch this survey was chosen to mark the
11th anniversary of the assassination of the country’s foremost investigative
journalist, Carlos Cardoso, on 22 November 2000.
The survey, entitled “Daily
Lives and Corruption”, took a sample of 1,000 people from each of six southern
African countries – Mozambique,
South Africa, Malawi, Zambia,
Zimbabwe
and the Democratic Republic of Congo. With the exceptions of Zambia and Malawi, the sample is exclusively
urban.
The Mozambican News Agency
(AIM) reports that in all the countries except Zambia, over half of the sample
admitted that they had paid bribes at some stage in the previous year. The
figure was highest in Mozambique,
with 68 per cent of the sample admitting to paying bribes. In Zambia, the
figure was 42 per cent.
In all countries, those
surveyed named the police as the most corrupt institution. Those who said they
had paid a bribe to the police in the previous 12 months ranged from 64 per
cent in DR Congo to 38 per cent in Zambia. For Mozambique the
figure was 48 per cent.
More than one in three (35
per cent) of the Mozambicans who had been in contact with the health services
reported paying a bribe. This was much higher than anywhere else in the region
– even in DR Congo only 22 per cent of those who used the health service
reported bribes.
35 per cent of the Mozambican
sample who used education services reported paying bribes, and there was the
same percentage of bribe payers among those who reported using registry and
permit services.
Asked why they had paid the
most recent bribe, over 60 per cent of the Mozambican sample said it was in
order to speed up procedures. This contrasts strongly with the South African
sample which stands at about 70 per cent of South Africans who said they
paid bribes “to avoid problems with the authorities”. The equivalent figure for
Mozambique
was only 20 per cent.
Relatively few Mozambicans
(around 10 per cent) said they had paid the bribe to obtain a service which, in
principle, should be free of charge. This figure rose to over 20 per cent in
the DRC and to about 30 per cent in Zimbabwe.
Across the region, the public
perception is that corruption has worsened in the past three years. Everywhere,
over half the sample reported small or large increases in corruption – ranging
from 72.3 per cent in the DRC to 53.3 per cent in Malawi.
In Mozambique, 31.8 per cent though
there had been a large increase in corruption, and 23.2 per cent thought there
had been a minimal increase., 23 per cent felt there had been no change, while
21.1 per cent said there had been a decline in corruption.
Asked how corrupt they
considered a range of institutions, the Mozambicans gave a relatively clean
bill of health to NGOs, religious bodies, and the media. These were the only
institutions that over 50 per cent of the sample considered not at all corrupt
or only slightly corrupt.
At the opposite end of the
scale were the police and the education system, regarded as “extremely corrupt”
by 58.2 and 43.1 per cent of the sample.
There was considerable
variation in assessment of government anti-corruption efforts across the
region. Thus in Zimbabwe
53.9 per cent said the government’s actions were “somewhat ineffective” or
“very ineffective”, while only 24.3 per cent ranked them as very or somewhat
effective.
But in Malawi, the
government got the thumbs up. 49.7 per cent thought the government’s efforts
were effective against 40.2 per cent who said they were ineffective.
The Mozambican sample was
divided – 31.1 per cent said the government actions were effective, 40.1 per
cent said they were ineffective, and 26.4 per cent ranked them as “neither
effective nor ineffective”.
Despite this less than
enthusiastic endorsement of government policies, when asked who they most
trusted to fight corruption, the interviewees tended to reply that it was
government leaders.
The major exception to this
was Mozambique,
where only 20.2 per cent said they placed most trust in the government – 22.4
per cent said they put their trust in the media to fight corruption. The media
has a much better standing in Mozambique
than in any of the other five countries.
In Zimbabwe and the DRC, the media is
clearly distrusted – only 5.2 per cent of the DRC sample and 5.6 per cent of
the Zimbabweans said they would put most trust in the media in the struggle
against corruption.
One encouraging finding of
the survey is that 76 per cent of the sample agreed with the statement that
“ordinary people can make a difference in the fight against corruption”. That
figure rose to 83 per cent in Zambia
and 82 per cent in Mozambique.
Across the region, 88 per
cent of those surveyed said they would support colleagues or friends who fought
against corruption, 80 per cent said they could envisage themselves becoming
involved in the anti-corruption struggle, and 77 per cent said they would
report an incident of corruption.
In Mozambique, these figures rose to
91.2 per cent, 86.1 per cent, and 82.2 per cent. Even if one assumes that a
good number of the interviewees were giving the pollsters the answers they
assumed they wanted to hear, these high figures look like a firm basis of
support for strong actions against corruption.
ZANIS
