Public Intelligence

A chart from the Transparency International study found that police are the largest recipient of public service bribes in South Asia.

A third of south Asians made to pay bribes (AFP):

More than one in three south Asians say they were forced to bribe officials in the last year, mainly for services they were legally entitled to, an international anti-graft watchdog said on Thursday. A survey released by Berlin-based Transparency International in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu showed bribery has become so endemic that the region is second only to sub-Saharan Africa as the corruption hotspot of the world. The watchdog surveyed 7,800 people in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, finding 40 percent had paid backhanders over the last 12 months to public servants, with police being the largest recipients. Two thirds of Indians, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis who had dealt with the police said they had paid bribes to corrupt officers in the last 12 months. “With bribery such a big part of life for south Asians, you can see why so many people are angry at their governments for not tackling corruption,” said Rukshana Nanayakkara, senior programme coordinator for the watchdog’s south Asia region. “People are sick of paying bribes to get on with their daily lives, and they are sick of the sleaze and undue influence of public servants.”

Who Do Indians Bribe Most? (Wall Street Journal):

If the Lokpal Bill ever gets cleared by the Indian Parliament, episodes of everyday corruption, widely perceived as endemic, may finally start to decline. At the moment, the figures are not encouraging, according to a new study by the Berlin-based anticorruption group Transparency International. The report, “Daily Lives and Corruption,” offers fresh data on bribery in South Asia based on a survey of 7,500 people taken over the past two years. The results are alarming: they suggests that 39% of South Asians who had to deal with public services in the previous year admitted to paying a bribe. In India, more than half of the people surveyed, or 54% of respondents, said they’ve paid a bribe. This was only worse in Bangladesh, where the figure is 66%, or two out of every three people. In Pakistan, the figure was around 50%, in Nepal 32%, in Sri Lanka 32% and in the Maldives 6%. … Take a look at how frequently Indians pay bribes when dealing with the following public services: Police: 64% Land services (buying, selling, renting and inheriting property): 63% Registry and permit services: 62% Tax revenue: 51% Utilities (including water, telephone, electricity services): 47% Judiciary: 45% Customs: 41% Medical services: 26% Education: 23%

South Asia: Corruption plagues daily life (Transparency International):