Global Corruption Barometer 2007 Reveals Major Problems Worldwide With Police and Judiciary

In its fifth edition, the Global Corruption Barometer 2007 summarizes citizens’ perceptions and experiences of corruption and bribery in 60 countries around the world.

The 2007 Barometer polled 63,000 people and was carried out by Gallup International on behalf of Transparency International, an international NGO based in Berlin:

" 'The Barometer reveals that the police and the judiciary in many countries around the world are part of a cycle of corruption, demanding bribes from citizens,' said Transparency International Managing Director, Cobus de Swardt. 'This troubling finding means that corruption is interfering with the basic right to equal treatment before the law'.

"Transparency International has been campaigning strongly this year against corruption in the judiciary, based on its Global Corruption Report 2007. This report details how bribery affects the courts – judges and other judicial personnel accept bribes to delay or accelerate cases, to allow or deny an appeal, or to decide a case in a certain way. The Global Corruption Report 2007 also includes data from a 2002 survey showing, for instance, that 96 per cent of respondents in Pakistan who had contact with the lower courts encountered corrupt practices, while in Russia, an estimated US $210 million in bribes is thought to be paid in courts each year".

Among the findings:

• About one in ten people around the world had to pay a bribe in the past year; reported bribery has increased in some regions, such as Asia-Pacific and South East Europe.
• Bribery is particularly widespread in interactions with the police, the judiciary and registry and permit services.
• The general public believes political parties, parliament, the police and the judicial/legal system are the most corrupt institutions in their societies.
• Half of those interviewed – and significantly more than four years ago – expect corruption in their country to increase in the next three years, with some African countries the exception.
• Half of those interviewed also think that their governments' efforts to fight corruption are ineffective.

The Transparency International website provides links to some of the news coverage of the Barometer.

On June 8, 2007, I published a post entitled International Report on Judicial Corruption that described the findings of the organization's Global Corruption Report 2007:

"This year's report takes a close look at judicial corruption around the world. Judicial corruption can involve outright bribery or political interference in the judicial process (...) 'TI’s latest global survey of attitudes towards corruption reveals that in more than twenty-five countries, at least one in ten households had to pay a bribe to get access to justice. In a further twenty countries, more than three in ten households reported that bribery was involved in securing access to justice or a 'fair' outcome in court. In Albania, Greece, Indonesia, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Peru, Taiwan and Venezuela, the figure was even higher'."