50% of Ugandans pay bribes, report says
Dec 09, 2010
ONE person out of two in Uganda has paid a bribe in the past 12 months, Transparency International (TI) has said.
By Anne Mugisa
ONE person out of two in Uganda has paid a bribe in the past 12 months, Transparency International (TI) has said.
Nearly half of those who paid bribes said they did so to avoid problems, while a quarter said it was meant to speed up procedures.
This was in Transparency International’s newly-released report for this year, which ranked Uganda with Afghanistan, Cambodia, Cameroon, India, Iraq and Liberia.
Others are Nigeria, the Palestinian territories, Senegal and Sierra Leone, where according to the report, more than one person out of two said they had handed out bribes dubbed “financial sweeteners†to officials.
However, the report indicated that Uganda’s rating in the perceived corruption index had improved from 130th to 127th out of 178 countries worldwide.
The cleanest country was ranked number one. The most corrupt, Somalia, was ranked 178th.
In East Africa, Uganda trails Rwanda and Tanzania, which are 66th and 116th respectively.
It is, however, ranked better than Kenya, which is in the 154th position, and Burundi, at 170.
Corruption was given a working definition in the report, abuse of entrusted power for private gain, which could apply to both public and private sectors.
However, in this case, the report referred to public officials, public servants and politicians.
The corruption perception index of 1 to 10, which ranks the cleanest with 10 and the dirtiest with 1, gives Uganda a 2.5 score, Tanzania 2.7 and Rwanda 4.0. Kenya got a score of 2.1 and Burundi got 1.8.
Burundi and Kenya are also the only East African Community member states ranked among the 10 countries perceived as most corrupt world wide.
Ethics minister Dr. Nsaba Buturo said yesterday that it was hard to determine the extent of corruption, but added that Ugandans need to do more
The study disclosed that worldwide, one person out of four had paid a bribe during the past year.
According to the anti-graft body, the study focused on small-scale bribery and was put together from polls conducted among more than 91,000 people in 86 countries.
ONE person out of two in Uganda has paid a bribe in the past 12 months, Transparency International (TI) has said.
Nearly half of those who paid bribes said they did so to avoid problems, while a quarter said it was meant to speed up procedures.
This was in Transparency International’s newly-released report for this year, which ranked Uganda with Afghanistan, Cambodia, Cameroon, India, Iraq and Liberia.
Others are Nigeria, the Palestinian territories, Senegal and Sierra Leone, where according to the report, more than one person out of two said they had handed out bribes dubbed “financial sweeteners†to officials.
However, the report indicated that Uganda’s rating in the perceived corruption index had improved from 130th to 127th out of 178 countries worldwide.
The cleanest country was ranked number one. The most corrupt, Somalia, was ranked 178th.
In East Africa, Uganda trails Rwanda and Tanzania, which are 66th and 116th respectively.
It is, however, ranked better than Kenya, which is in the 154th position, and Burundi, at 170.
Corruption was given a working definition in the report, abuse of entrusted power for private gain, which could apply to both public and private sectors.
However, in this case, the report referred to public officials, public servants and politicians.
The corruption perception index of 1 to 10, which ranks the cleanest with 10 and the dirtiest with 1, gives Uganda a 2.5 score, Tanzania 2.7 and Rwanda 4.0. Kenya got a score of 2.1 and Burundi got 1.8.
Burundi and Kenya are also the only East African Community member states ranked among the 10 countries perceived as most corrupt world wide.
Ethics minister Dr. Nsaba Buturo said yesterday that it was hard to determine the extent of corruption, but added that Ugandans need to do more
The study disclosed that worldwide, one person out of four had paid a bribe during the past year.
According to the anti-graft body, the study focused on small-scale bribery and was put together from polls conducted among more than 91,000 people in 86 countries.