Views of a Nepali Economist

• 40 percent had paid backhanders over the last 12 months to public servants, with police being the largest recipients
• 62 percent of south Asians believed corruption had got worse over the past three years, with Indians and Pakistanis the most pessimistic.
• More than 80 percent, however, said they were willing to take action to end corruption.
• the country most plagued by bribery is Bangladesh, where 66 percent report paying bribes to public institutions, mostly just to gain access to services to which they are already entitled.
• In India, where the figure was 54 percent, a majority thought their government wasn't doing enough to fight corruption that permeates all levels of society -- requiring bribes for anything from getting a birth certificate to tenders for infrastructure projects
• In Nepal, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka, bribes were mostly paid to speed up unwieldy bureaucracy, highlighting how corruption can be a barrier to business expansion
• In Sri Lanka, significantly more people paid bribes to tax authorities than other services 
• in Nepal and the Maldives, customs officers reportedly received the most bribes.
• Over 53.7 percent of respondents surveyed in Nepal perceived the political parties as the most corrupt institutions, followed by the legislature and the police as the second and the third corrupt institutions respectively. 
• highest amounts of bribe (exceeding Rs 3,500 per year) was paid by 2.2 percent of Nepali households
• 18.8 percent households paid approximately Rs 2,485 to Rs 35,429.
• 32.2 percent had to pay approximately less than Rs 2,000 in a year

Labels: corruption, south asia, TI, transparency international

# posted by Mukesh Khanal @ 2:41 PM