Good morning. Welcome.

Overview

• Saturday 9 December is an important milestone – the third annual International Anti-corruption Day.
• The day is in recognition of the signing of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in Mexico three years ago. This landmark agreement came into force last year. A lot of progress has been made in mobilising support and momentum: 140 countries have now signed on, and 80 have ratified.
• Transparency International looks at corruption from many angles. Today’s Global Corruption Barometer is important because of its perspective: it shows corruption through the eyes of ordinary citizens. It speaks for those who, as victims of a hidden crime, are without a voice. Or who live in fear if they exercise that voice.
• The Barometer is based on Gallup International’s Voice of the People survey of 59,661 people in 62 low, middle and high-income countries between July and September of this year.
• It completes the trilogy of TI’s key global measurement tools, joining the Bribe Payers Index (BPI), released in October, and the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), issued in November. They focus on the supply side of bribery, and on perceptions by experts of public sector and political corruption, respectively.
• So what does the Barometer say? Which spheres of life are most affected by corruption?
• It reveals the extent of people’s experience of petty bribery; in many countries, people stare it in the face in their daily lives. It looks at the institutions and public services most affected, its frequency, and how much people pay.
• And it tells a stark story: the experience reflected in the Barometer shows that bribery is widespread outside Europe and North America – and even there, many people think that corruption is a serious problem.
• Registrations and permits command the biggest bribes – on average, more than €50. But the most frequent bribe paying (as opposed to the largest amounts) is not for registrations and permits, but to the police.
  Good cop, bad cop
• Experience shows that police are the most often bribed. 17 percent of people worldwide in contact with the police ended up paying a bribe, especially in Africa and Latin America. In Latin America, for instance, about one in three respondents who encounter the police end up paying a bribe.
• Police bribery is an in-your-face crime.
• When the innocent must bribe in order to remain free in the face of trumped-up charges, bribery is a crime of power.
• Sometimes it is a crime of expediency. When those who commit a minor criminal act can bypass justice because they bribe a cop, the course of justice is diverted.
• But bribery can also be a crime of impunity, when those guilty of serious criminality are able to get away with it, exacerbating their offence.
• In the experience of respondents, about one in every six contacts with the police – the guardians of the law – results in an illegal act.
• When fear of the criminal shifts to fear of the police charged with protecting you, corruption cracks the foundation of trust that underlies true justice.
• A police sector undermined by corruption threatens the ability of countries sufficiently to prepare for and respond to the complex security threats of the modern world.
  Government anti-corruption performance: citizens dissatisfied
• The Barometer asked a new question this year: how effective are your government’s anti-corruption efforts?
• Most respondents have a poor opinion. Sixty-nine percent say their government is not effective in fighting corruption, or worse. Only 22 percent labelled their government’s actions “effective” or “very effective”.
• People think their government does not do enough. And that what little they do is failing to make a real difference.
• Significantly, more than one in seven thinks their government actually encourages corruption. In the United States and the United Kingdom, despite relatively good 2006 CPI scores, that number rises to nearly one in five.
• This means that in those countries, people fighting corruption are swimming against the tide; and that those governments need urgently to re-build the trust of the people.
  Politics and parliaments
• Once again, political parties are seen as the most corrupt institution, followed by parliaments and legislatures. The Barometer results demonstrate the persistent belief that the political life of many countries is significantly affected by corruption. This view of their political leaders heightens the people's lack of confidence in their government, undermining a primary pillar of democracy.
• Let me clarify one point: police are the sector where people had most frequently paid a bribe. Asked about the sector they think is most affected by corruption, the majority of people identified politics and parliaments.
  Real world impact
• The survey results show that political life is most affected by corruption, followed closely by the business environment.
• Corruption is seen as affecting family life very little in the European Union countries and the Newly Independent States, but a lot in Africa and South East Europe.
• Corruption in US political life has increased in the last two years; perceived corruption in Iceland’s business environment and family life has increased; in Spain and Japan, corruption in both political and business life is seen to have increased.
• Corruption is a cold, hard, fact of life in the 21st century. And while the poor are hit hardest, they are not alone.
• Around the world, corruption permeates daily life. Its impact is felt from the parents who must pay bribes to get their child health care, to the employees of Enron, whose lives were torn apart by massive fraud at the top of the company.
• The impact of corruption on life varies among regions. Only 22 percent of Europeans feel personally affected to a great extent, compared to 70 percent of Africans. In some countries - Bolivia, Kenya, Nigeria, Philippines, South Korea and Turkey – even more indicated that corruption affects their personal and family lives to a large extent.
• Citizens in wealthier regions - North America and Western Europe - express concerns about large-scale corruption even though they have little direct experience of bribery. In North America, people think the business environment (85 percent) and political life (89 percent) are affected to a moderate or large extent by corruption.
  A landmark opportunity for global action
• In just a few days, the UNCAC countries will meet in Jordan [10 to 14 December] to decide the fate of this landmark agreement: the funding of monitoring, how to ensure compliance and secure the repatriation of stolen wealth.
• This is a major opportunity to move the fight against corruption to a new and more effective plane.

Let me leave you with two important reminders:

First, TI’s Global Corruption Report 2007, with a special focus on corruption and the judiciary, will be published in the spring. The legal system/judiciary is one of the three sectors identified as most prone to bribes in the Barometer.

And finally, once again, International Anti-Corruption Day is this coming Saturday, 9 December. I hope each of you will recognise this day as an important milestone in the annual calendar and in the struggle for justice.

Thank you.