Corruption and its perception [Archives:2006/958/Opinion]
By: Moneer Saif
There are many factors that foster corruption including inadequate legislation, poor law enforcement, cultural peculiarities, and low salaries for government officials. One factor that is often either ignored or not clearly articulated is how corruption is perceived and how this influences the growth of corruption.
Perceptions of corruption are very complex and, depending on the circumstances, may act to either reinforce or reduce corruption. For example, the perception of rampant corruption can increase the practice by encouraging people to believe that paying bribes is business as usual and by enticing officials to think that there is nothing wrong with accepting bribes. The problem escalates as people become unsure if a matter can be settled without a bribe, and much surer that a bribe will be accepted.
Believing that everybody takes bribes, officials lose the fear of being punished for receiving them. If everyone believes everyone else is corrupt, corruption becomes a part of the culture. On the other hand, there are situations that the perception of corruption can diminish the practice. In countries with strong law enforcement, the perception of corruption can put public pressure on law enforcement agencies to fight corruption, eventually limiting it. This scenario is contingent on several factors, however.
The first condition is the availability of sufficient resources to fight corruption. If corruption is already widespread, it may be very difficult for the government to find resources to investigate every corrupt act. A second factor is the real, as opposed to apparent, willingness of law enforcement agencies to actually fight corruption. If corruption becomes ingrained in a society it is very difficult to root it out, even if the best legislation is in place and people perceive corruption to be a serious problem.
Therefore, it is terribly difficult to root out the habit of giving bribes based on the fact that corruption has become engrained in Yemen in culture. That is why we find the willingness to give bribes associated with the perception of corruption. Additionally, the government is an important player in the anti-corruption game and it must have a willingness to fight corruption. This will is associated with the willingness of the people to offer bribes. Moreover, the media has the power to influence the perception of corruption and it must have intensive programs to increase the public's awareness of the problem.
In Yemen, the perception of corruption is significantly associated with the people's willingness to give bribes. If one perceives an institution to be very corrupt, he is more willing to offer a bribe. In this way, the perception of corruption may actually facilitate corruption and is therefore the practice becomes a vicious circle that does not always reflect reality.
If one assumes that those people who visit the state institutions most often have the most accurate perception of corruption, then from the econometric analysis it follows that the Yemeni population tend to underestimate corruption in the local government, judicial institutions, and police.
Special attention should be paid to the mass media as a source of perceptions about corruption. In countries like Yemen where corruption scandals very rarely lead to prosecution, the media may actually support corruption. If the media provides people with perceptions of corruption that are greater than reality, the media may encourage people believe that they have to give bribes.
So, perceptions of corruption are widespread over the population and should be given more attention. Perceptions may actually facilitate the negative or positive processes that take place in society. The direction in which perception affects the willingness to give bribes interferes with the role of institutions and the role of the government. Even if perceptions are not biased, high uncertainty in perceptions makes it more risky to do business.
Moneer Saif is a Financial Analyst at the Foreign Investments Divisions of Tadhamon International Islamic Bank.
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[archive-e:958-v:14-y:2006-d:2006-06-26-p:opinion]
