New Corruption Survey In Iraq

Germany’s Transparency International released a new worldwide survey of corruption on December 9, 2010. “Global Corruption Barometer 2010,” polled over 91,500 people in 86 countries. One of those nations was Iraq. The organization found that Iraqis felt that corruption was worsening.

Iraqi respondents saw corruption in their country as worse than the global and regional averages. “Global Corruption Barometer” reported that 56% of those polled thought corruption had gotten worse in the last three years. In the Middle East 67% of respondents felt that way. That compared to 77% of Iraqis who said graft had increased, 19% who said it stayed the same, and only 4% who claimed it had decreased. 56% of those polled in Iraq said that they had paid bribes for at least one service in the last year, compared to 36% in the Middle East. 

Transparency International also asked about what institutions people felt were corrupted with 1 being not at all, and 5 being extremely. In the Middle East, political parties received the worst ranking at 3.6, followed by public officials with 3.4, parliament with 3.3, police with 3.2, businesses and the judiciary at 2.9, media and education with 2.6, NGOs and religious bodies at 2.5, and the military with the best score at 2.4. In Iraq, political parties were considered the most corrupt as well at 3.9, but after that the results were a little different. Parliament was next at 3.6, the police received a score of 3.2, public officials got 3.1, business 3.0, the military and education 2.8, the judiciary and NGOs 2.6, the media 2.3, and religious bodies were the best at 2.0.

The results of the poll should not be surprising. Back in October Transparency International ranked Iraq the fourth most corrupt country in the world for the second year in a row. Iraq’s main anti-corruption body, the Commission on Public Integrity, has had little affect upon the institutional corruption going on in the country. No senior official has ever been convicted of any crimes, and the average Iraqi has to put up with bribes and graft all the time. “Global Corruption Barometer 2010” is just the latest example of this daily reality in Iraq.

SOURCES

Commission of Integrity, “Annual report for 2008,” December 2009
- “CoI Key achievements and indicators from January 1, 2010 To June 30, 2010,” 7/28/10

Transparency International, “Corruption Perceptions Index 2010,” 10/26/10
- “Global Corruption Barometer 2010,” 12/9/10