In DRC, where corruption is rife, eighty-one per cent of citizens thinks the police are corrupt. Pic credit: CPJ
More than half of all citizens think corruption is getting worse in their country and that their government is doing a bad job in tackling the menace, the Global Corruption Barometer, which surveys the views of citizens on corruption and bribery in Africa has said.
The 10th edition of the report was conducted in partnership with Afrobarometer and Omega Research between 2016 and 2018, and it incorporated the views of more than 47,000 citizens from 35 countries across Africa.
The report found more than one in four people who accessed public services, such as health care and education, paid a bribe in the previous year. This is equivalent to approximately 130 million citizens in the 35 countries surveyed.
“We asked respondents whether they had contact with five key public services in their country in the previous 12 months – police, health care, schools, ID documents and utilities. We then asked whether they had paid a bribe, given a gift or done a favour in order to get the services they needed,” the survey said.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the poorest countries in the world, despite having unrivalled natural wealth, bribery is commonplace. Recording the highest rate of corruption, the country also has the highest overall bribery rate (80 per cent), followed by Liberia (53 per cent), Sierra Leone (52 per cent), Cameroon (48 per cent) and Uganda (46 per cent), the annual survey said.
Mauritius maintains the lowest overall bribery rate (5 per cent), followed by Botswana (7 per cent), Cabo Verde (8 per cent), Namibia (11 per cent) and Lesotho (14 per cent).
“Corruption in African countries is hindering economic, political and social development. It is a major barrier to economic growth, good governance and basic freedoms, such as freedom of speech or citizens’ right to hold governments to account.
“More than this, corruption affects the wellbeing of individuals, families and communities,” the report noted.
Here are the institutions that citizens reported as being the most corrupt in Africa:
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