Business corruption on the rise, says report 

Presenting the results of the 2009 edition of Transparency International's (TI) Global Corruption Barometer , the NGO's chair, Huguette Labelle, said just over half (53%) of respondents worldwide consider the private sector to be corrupt, an 8% increase in just five years. 

Business is seen as the most corrupt category in around a fifth of the 69 countries surveyed, including Luxembourg and Switzerland, but political parties are seen as most affected overall. Indeed, 68% of survey respondents think political parties are corrupt. 

Over half of respondents held the view that bribery is often used to shape policies and regulations in companies' favour, the survey found, while only three in ten said their governments' efforts to fight corruption were effective. 

"Citizens are disillusioned with the private sector's efforts to influence legislation to their own good and with the lack of effort by governments to fight it," Labelle said. 

The results indicate that "governments must think very carefully about how to make it safe and simple to report corruption," she continued, also calling on companies to improve the transparency of their financial reporting and better disclose their interactions with government. 

"People are ready to pay more to buy from companies with integrity," Labelle insisted. 

Asked to respond to the survey's findings, a spokesman for EU business organisation BusinessEurope told EurActiv that he was not aware of its publication and could not comment at this stage. 

Citizens resorting to bribes 

Petty bribery is on the rise in many places, the survey found, with 1 in 10 respondents admitting to having paid a bribe in the last year. 5% of Europeans admitted to having done so, but the figures were much higher for some member states, like Lithuania (30%) and Greece (18%). 

"As economic growth shifts into reverse, poor households are increasingly forced to make impossible choices in allocating scare resources," said Labelle. "Do parents pay a bribe so that a sick child can see the doctor or do they buy food for their family? It is simply unacceptable that families continue to face these decisions." 

Labelle warned that governments must "listen closely" to ordinary people "or face the consequences of an increasingly alienated and distrustful citizenry". 

European divide 

As for the European Union, "there is a difference between the new and old EU member states," Labelle said. Citizens perceive higher levels of petty bribery in the civil services of the countries which have joined the Union since 2004, she explained. 

"In the new member states, political parties are widely seen as corrupt. This will lower participation rates and risk having governments that don’t represent the majority," the TI chair continued. 

For the EU as a whole, 32% of respondents singled out political parties as the most corrupt, followed by the private sector (23%) and civil servants (18%). But Bulgarians believe the judiciary to be most affected by corruption (38%), putting the country alongside countries like Georgia (37%) and Armenia (33%). 

Over half of Europeans (56%) believe government efforts to fight corruption are ineffective. 

At EU level, the European Commission launched a voluntary register for lobbyists seeking to influence its policymaking last June (EurActiv 24/06/08). As of 4 June, 1,532 bodies had signed up. 

Asked to explain the difference between lobbying and corruption, Labelle said corruption was often subtle. "We often see courtship between governments and lobbyists over a period of time, which culminates in legislation." 

Commenting on the survey's findings, Transparency International (TI) Chair Huguette Labelle said "these results show a public sobered by a financial crisis precipitated by weak regulations and a lack of corporate accountability" and offer "a reminder that governments and companies must make more effort to fight corruption". 

"Companies must engage meaningfully with the reporting frameworks and anti-corruption codes now available and begin applying these in earnest, reporting clearly and honestly about their efforts, and benchmarking their policies and practices," said Robin Hodess, TI's director of policy and research.