Political parties, police, parliament are most corrupt: TI report

ISLAMABAD: The country’s political parties, police, and parliament have emerged as the top three most corrupt institutions, with the judiciary showing improvement in curbing the menace of corruption, said the 2010 Global Corruption Barometer, a worldwide public opinion survey on corruption released on the International Anti-Corruption Day (Thursday) by Transparency International
The report said that 77 percent of the people believed that corruption in the country had increased in the last three years, whereas the dominant majority of 73 percent thought the present regime had been extremely ineffective in curbing corruption. The report said parliament, NGOs, private sector businesses and even the media became more corrupt in 2010 as compared to 2009. Interestingly, the judiciary, which was rated the second-most corrupt of the seven institutions assessed last year, had come down to number six, besides improving the assessment score of its perceived corruption.
Amongst the institutions assessed, the least corrupt were religious bodies, military, education system and the media respectively. Regarding the assessment of government actions in the fight against corruption, 73 percent of the people in the country thought the steps were extremely ineffective.
In 2007, then government of president General (r) Pervez Musharraf was rated better in its fight against corruption with only 52 percent talking about its ineffectiveness to check the menace. A total of 10 institutions and professions were assessed in 2010 regarding their public perception of having been affected by corruption. During the survey, those approached were asked to rate these institutions between one and five, explaining that one meant not at all corrupt, while five meant extremely corrupt.
The TI said corruption had increased world-over in the last three years, according to six out of 10 people around the world, with one in four people claiming to have paid bribes in the last year. The report consists of surveys of more than 91,000 people in 86 countries and territories. It focuses on petty bribery, perceptions of public institutions and views of whom people trust to combat corruption.