(MENAFN- Morocco World News) Approximately 48 percent of Moroccans paid a bribe to officials while trying to access public services over the past year 18 points higher than the regional average of 30 percent according to a report on the prevalence of corruption in the Middle East and North Africa by Transparency International released on Tuesday.
TI partnered with Afrobarometer and the Arab Barometer network to survey 10797 adult respondents in January from nine countries and territories – Algeria Egypt Jordan Lebanon Morocco Palestine Sudan Tunisia and Yemen – on their perceptions regarding the prevalence of corruption and the government's fight against related illicit practices over the past year. Bribery rates in Algeria were lower than Morocco despite TI's recently released 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index which ranked both countries at 88th place worldwide measuring similar indicators using “a number of different sources.” Only 14 percent of Algerians reported paying a bribe while attempting to access public schools public health services identity documents utility services police assistance or court adjudication. In Morocco the bribery rate stood at 48 percent. Analysts extrapolated the results of the endeavor to estimate that 50 million people in the Arab World paid bribes over the time period of interest. Notably no residents of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Saudi Arabia Bahrain Qatar Kuwait the United Arab Emirates and Oman) participated in the study though the 2015 index places them all in the top 60 countries listed. TI's most recent report said Morocco along with Egypt were the only two countries where people held mixed views on how the level of corruption has changed. The two states' citizens responded with roughly equal proportions on whether corruption either increased stagnated or decreased over the past year. Just over a quarter of Moroccans said corruption has risen 'a lot or somewhat' in the last 12 months – the lowest rate of any country surveyed. When asked the question 'How corrupt is the public sector?' 49 percent of respondents from the kingdom said it is 'somewhat' corrupt while a third said it is 'mostly' or 'all' corrupt and eight percent said it is not corrupt at all. The authors clarified that the question was stratified to include perceptions of seven specific types of public offices: the president and prime minister's offices members of the national parliament other government officials tax authorities police forces court officials and local government figures. Moroccans said locals politicians and members of the parliament represented the most corrupt areas of government life. Other stratified results showed that between 46 to 60 percent of Moroccans paid a bribe to a judge or a court official in the last year. Public schools and utility companies were the least popular places in which the Moroccan respondents paid a bribe. In five of the nine regions citizens suspected tax officials of being the most corrupt government organization. Eighty percent of Lebanese respondents and 83 percent of Yemenis said tax officials are 'most' or 'all' corrupt. The report also noted that certain demographics – rural populations (39 percent) citizens under the age of 35 (33 percent) and poor people – are more likely to have paid a bribe. Other stratified results showed that between 46 to 60 percent of Moroccans paid a bribe to a judge or a court official in the last year. Public schools and utility companies were the least popular places in which the Moroccan respondents paid a bribe. In five of the nine regions citizens suspected tax officials of being the most corrupt government organization. Eighty percent of Lebanese respondents and 83 percent of Yemenis said tax officials are 'most' or 'all' corrupt. Bribery rates in Algeria were lower than Morocco despite TI's recently released 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index which ranked both countries at 88th place worldwide using similar criteria. Only 14 percent of Algerians reported paying a bribe while attempting to access public schools public health services identity documents utility services police assistance or court adjudication. In Morocco the bribery rate stood at 48 percent. The report also noted that certain demographics – rural populations (39 percent) citizens under the age of 35 (33 percent) and poor people – are more likely to have paid a bribe.
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