Gov’t corruption rose in last 2 months of Aquino gov’t – SWS

MANILA — Corruption in government was perceived to have risen during the last months of the Aquino administration, whose mantra was straight-path governance, results of a survey conducted by
the polling group Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

The 2016 Survey of Enterprises on Corruption found that 63 percent of Filipino executives saw “a lot” of public sector corruption.

This was an increase from the 56 percent recorded in 2013 and was “disappointingly far” above the record low of 43 percent in 2012, SWS president Mahar K. Mangahas said in a presentation on Wednesday.

“(Over the) last four years, the effort against corruption started very well and was maintained up to 2015. But there was backsliding in 2016,” Mangahas said.

The 2016 Survey of Enterprises on Corruption was the 13th in a series conducted in 2000-2009 and restarted in 2012. It covered 950 Filipino executives who were asked about their views and actual experiences about corruption. The survey was conducted from February to May this year in seven locations across the country.

Survey results showed that 35 percent of the executives polled were found to have had personal knowledge of a corrupt transaction with government within their line of business over the previous three months while the survey was being conducted.

This was an increase from the record low of 32 percent in 2015.

Bribes were also found to be a common occurrence in dealing with government.

According to the survey, 42 percent of the executives said most companies in their sector of business were giving bribes to win public sector contracts. This was an increase from the record low of 39 percent as in 2015.

However, 65 percent of executives whose enterprises gave bribes  to certain government officials did not report the incident because “nothing would be done anyway.”

In terms of sincerity in fighting corruption among government agencies, the Bureau of Customs was rated “very bad” garnering a score of -68, while the Land Transportation Office was rated “bad” with a score of -49.

Only one agency, namely the Securities and Exchange Commission, was rated “very good” (+69), the highest score among the agencies.

Corruption in the private sector itself was also noted, with 26 percent of the participating executives saying that most companies in their line of business gave bribes to win private sector contracts.

The executives noted in the survey that the best ways for businesses to fight corruption were to never pay bribes; use honest business practices; and know the laws and rules. These were deemed far more acceptable than going to the Office of the Ombudsman; going to media; joining an anti-corruption group; and campaigning against corrupt candidates.  SFM