Corruption experience differs, distrust of ‘religious bodies’ shared in Sudans: report

Globally, one person in four has paid a bribe to a public body in the last year, according to a survey carried out in 95 countries by Transparency International. Traditionally and “almost stereotypically”, as eloquently confirmed by unimpeachable internal critics of the stature of Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, “sub-Saharan Africa does not score major points in the area of corruption”. According to the Global Corruption Barometer 2013, issued this month by the Berlin-based NGO Transparency International, Sierra Leone has “the highest number of respondents admitting to having paid a bribe (84 per cent)” and “seven out of nine countries with the highest reported bribery rate are in sub-Saharan Africa”. The report rates “the countries with the lowest reported bribery rate” as Denmark, Finland, Japan and Australia, all with a bribery rate of one per cent. Sub-Saharan African countries unenviably vie, year-on-year, for the dubious title of “most corrupt country”, and the report states that citizens of South Sudan are particularly sceptical about the effectiveness of their government’s “efforts to combat corruption”. According to the report, South Sudanese citizens believe that 70 per cent of “religious bodies”, 63 per cent of business, 60 per cent of the judiciary and 62 per cent of NGOs are “tainted with corruption”. Similarly in Sudan, 79 per cent said that “religious bodies” are corrupt – the highest figure in the world – however, 47 per cent of Sudanese say that “corruption has decreased”. About 64 per cent of Sudanese people believe that their country is governed “by few big entities acting in their own best interests”. The Sudanese assessment of business (71 per cent), and the judiciary (66 per cent), shows a marginally lower level of trust in the country’s civil and judicial institutions than their southern neighbour (62 per cent for business and 60 per cent for the judiciary). See the entire report