The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The private sector uses bribes to influence public policy, laws and regulations, believe over half of those polled for 2009 Global Corruption Barometer according to a Berlin based Transparency International (TI).

The Barometer, a global public opinion survey released yesterday by Transparency International (TI), also found that the poorest families continue to be punished by petty bribe demands.

Across the board, low-income respondents were more likely to be met with bribe demands than high-income respondents. Additionally, petty bribery was found to be on the rise in Venezuela, Ghana, Indonesia, Cambodia Bolivia, Senegal, Russia and Kenya, compounding the already difficult situation of low-income households, as jobs and income dwindle in the economic downturn it said.

The Barometer, with more than 73,000 respondents drawn from 69 countries and territories around the world, found 68 percent of respondents saw political parties as corrupt, and 29 percent saw them as the single most corrupt institution in their country.

The civil service and parliament trailed political parties, perceived by 63 and 60 percent of respondents respectively as being corrupt.

The media, while not perceived as clean, scored best with just over 40 percent of respondents labelling the sector as corrupt and with only 6 percent seeing it as the single most corrupt domestic institution.

Although Bangladesh was not covered by the survey, the findings of the Barometer in many ways reflect the situation in the country, especially impact of corruption on the poor and the powerless, role of the private sector as the supply side of corruption, and growing public demand for integrity in both public and private sectors, said Dr. Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), and a member of the International Board of TI.

"These results show a public sobered by a financial crisis precipitated by weak regulations and a lack of corporate accountability," said Transparency International Chair, Huguette Labelle.

"But we also see that the public is willing to actively support clean business. What is needed now is bold action by companies to continue strengthening their policies and practices, and to report more transparently on finances and interactions with government", he added.