Given the rate at which scams are being uncovered these days, it isn't surprising that India comes across as the ninth most corrupt nation in the world. No, that's not Arundhati Roy's assertion, but that of the 2010 Global Corruption Barometer released on Thursday.
In India, 54 per cent of the people have reported paying a bribe to receive attention from at least one of nine different service providers in the past 12 months. The services include education, judiciary, medical services, police, registry & permit services, utilities, tax revenue, customs.
That's not all. Three in every four people say that corruption has increased in the last three years. All in the days of a corruption driven Manmohan Singh government.
The worst of the 86 countries is Liberia where 89 per cent reported paying bribes. The other seven countries above India are Uganda (86 per cent), Cambodia (84 per cent), Sierra Leone (71 per cent), Nigeria (63 per cent), Afghanistan (61 per cent), Senegal (56 per cent), and Iraq (56 per cent). Cameroon shares the ninth spot with India.
The Scandinavian countries, not surprisingly, are at the bottom of the Barometer, with Denmark reporting a zero bribery rate. Not much is rotting there, for sure. The other cleanest countries are Norway, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, Australia, Korea (South), the Netherlands and Iceland. All rated 3 per cent or lower.
Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer is the only worldwide public opinion survey on views and experiences of corruption. As a poll of the general public, it provides an indicator of how corruption is viewed at national level and how efforts to curb corruption around the world are assessed on the ground. It also provides a measure of people’s experience of corruption in the past year. The Barometer surveyed more than 91,000 people in 86 countries and territories. It focused on petty bribery, perceptions of public institutions, and views of whom people trust to combat corruption.
