For full BBC article, entitled "UN Afghanistan Survey Points to Huge Scale of Bribery", click here. Afghans paid $2.5bn (£1.5bn) in bribes over the past 12 months, or the equivalent of almost one quarter of legitimate GDP, a UN report suggests. Surveying 7,600 people, it found nearly 60% more concerned about corruption than insecurity or unemployment. More than half the population had to pay at least one bribe to a public official last year, the report adds. The findings contrast sharply with a recent BBC survey in which the economy appeared to top Afghan concerns. The survey commissioned by the BBC and other broadcasters in December suggested that fewer Afghans (14%) saw corruption as the biggest problem than the economy (34%) and security situation (32%). According to the UN survey, bribes averaged $160 (£98) in contrast to an average Afghan annual income of $425. Bribes were most often paid to police, judges and politicians but members of international organisations and NGOs were also seen as corrupt, the survey said.
Although this song was written in 1971 as protest anthem against the Vietnam War, somehow (in an age of tepid climate change talks by leaders with immense carbon footprints and swift citizen punches to Berlusconi's spray-tan, spray-hairline face) the frustrated tone of this song really continues to resonate. If you want to hear the melody, see the video starting at the 0:11 mark.I'm sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocritics
All I want is the truthJust gimme some truthI've had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
Money for dope
Money for rope
No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of soap
Money for dope
Money for rope
I'm sick to death of seeing things
From tight-lipped, condescending, mama's little chauvinists
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth now
I've had enough of watching scenes
Of schizophrenic, ego-centric, paranoiac, prima-donnas
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth
Transparency International has come out with its rankings of perceptions of corruption for the year 2009. As you can see, Qatar ranks lowest in terms of perceived corruption, while Kuwait, unfortunately fares the least well for the Gulf Region. You can see the interactive map here.
If anyone saw yesterday's newspaper, The Kuwait Times mentioned two separate articles on Kuwait's fall in ranking on two different studies, one on Corruption by Transparency International (a study that I mentioned last week on my blog, and the other on the ease of doing business in Kuwait. Regarding corruption, the article wrote:
KUWAIT: According to the Transparency International's yearly Corruption Perceptions Index, which measures perceived levels of public-sector corruption in over 170 countries, Kuwait has regressed five places internationally. The index is published by Transparency International, an anti-graft watchdog, and is included in the organization's Global Corruption Report 2009: Corruption and the Private Sector that was released in Berlin on Wednesday.
Kuwait came in 65th place in the index, tied with Cuba, while it came in seventh place among Arab countries. Kuwait's position remained the same in their previous index after failing to make any new steps to fight corruption.
KUWAIT: Conducting business in Kuwait has become more difficult in the last year, according to a recently-released annual report conducted by the International Finance Organization and the World Bank. The report, which assesses the ease of doing business in various parts of the world, shows that Kuwait's rank has been deteriorating. The decline in the rank by nine points could affect the competitiveness of Kuwaiti market to attract foreign investors, which might delay achieving the government strategy to t
urn Kuwait into an international financial and trading center.
The study titled 'Doing Business 2010: Reforming through difficult times' ranked Kuwait in the 61st position among 183 countries covered by the study. Kuwait has slid down from the 52nd position when compared to the study conducted the previous year. The ranking is calculated according to the average obtained from nine different factors that regulate business concerns in the country, and whether they affect business and their development.
The most alarming detail about Kuwait's "doing business" status is the 'starting business' category, which looks into the number of procedures necessary to open a business, in addition to the cost of these procedures and the time range during which they can be completed. In this rank, Kuwait occupies the low 137th position, diving down from the 134th position back in 2009.
I would like to obtain a copy of this, as the theme for this year is Corruption and the Private Sector, and I am quite curious as to what has been found for the Gulf region, but it does not seem available by download from the website. However, I am including here some information about the theme for this year's report:
Transparency International’s Global Corruption Report 2009 (GCR09) brings together leading scholars, business practitioners and civil society experts to examine a broad range of persistent and emerging corruption risks for business, assess the efficacy of existing remedies, and propose
practical and innovative measures to strengthen and future-proof corporate integrity.Topics covered include:
- Corruption inside the enterprise: responding to
corporate fraud and conflicts of interest.- Needs-tailored strategies: addressing corruption risks in SMEs, high-risk industries and privatisation programmes.
- The state of play in compliance, reporting, codes and regulation: what works, what doesn’t,
what’s next?- Holistic corporate integrity – aligning values, incentives and market signals: engaging owners,
lenders and gatekeepers.- New and emerging markets: compliance in a changing global economy.
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