Uganda leads East African states in bribery - report

By Solomon Arinaitwe

IN SUMMARY: Despite the worrying levels of bribery in the region, those who pay the money say they have no way out and are not willing to report the matter to authorities.

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To access most of the essential services in Uganda, you are more likely to fork out a bribe than in any other East African country, according to a new report.

More than 50 per cent of the sampled respondents believe that Uganda is “extremely corrupt” followed by Tanzania, Kenya and Burundi at 48 per cent, 41 per cent and 27 per cent respectively.

Rwanda recorded the least affirmative responses to the “extremely corrupt” score at two per cent, says the latest East African Bribery Index 2012.

Ugandan institutions lead in demanding for bribes in the region with 40.7 per cent.

Tanzania follows with 39.1 per cent, Kenya with 29.5 per cent and Burundi, which was the worst surveyed country last year, recorded a relatively lower rate at 18.8 per cent. Rwanda recorded the least chances of a bribe exchanging hands at a score of 2.5 per cent.

The survey indicates that the East African region seems to be stuck in the corruption cycle as majority of citizens “observed that corruption levels either remained as bad or increased in the last one year”.

In each of the five countries, the citizens believe that there is lack of political will on the government’s part to fight the vice and the failure to take action on corrupt individuals was blamed for the expected increase in corruption.

The survey recorded bribery experiences involving 9,303 respondents in key sectors of medical services, education, utilities, judiciary, police, registry, licences, tax services and the local government.

It defined likelihood “as the probability of a respondent being asked or expected to pay a bribe”, prevalence as “the probability that a bribe would be paid to a sector upon interaction” and perceived impact as “perception on whether they [respondents] would have received the services they sought from a particular institution if they failed to pay a bribe”.

The report notes that the likelihood of encountering bribery in the police, judiciary and educational sector was highest in Tanzania at 64.4 per cent, 53.7 per cent and 28.2 per cent respectively. Uganda leads in ‘bribery likelihood’ in the medical sector. Comparing the likelihood of encountering a bribe, the report found out that “the civil registration and medical sectors” registered the worst performance in Uganda while in Tanzania, “education, police, judiciary and water utilities registered the worst performances.”

In Kenya, the Land Services registered the most prevalence rates at 37.9 per cent. Rwanda reported consistently lower bribery rates.

The institution of the police across the region ranked top in corruption incidences, except in Burundi where police tied with judiciary. Access to police services in the region, therefore, inevitably has to involve money exchanging hands.

Though bribes continue to exchange hands as desperate citizens seek to access essential services, majority of bribe payers do not report to relevant authorities.

Source: Sunday Monitor (02/03/2012): http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Uganda+leads+East+African+states+in+bribery+++report/-/688334/1492596/-/3roy0gz/-/index.html