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STOCK HOLDERS SA PAMAHALAAN Corruption in government remains high –
poll Corruption in government remains rampant, but there are fewer cases of bribery for government contracts in Metro Manila, based on the latest business survey taken by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).
The survey also showed that three of every five managers see corruption in the public sector as a serious problem. “The scale of public sector corruption remains high,” SWS president Mahar Mangahas said in a presentation of the “2007 SWS Business Survey on Corruption” at the Dusit Hotel Nikko in Makati City Friday. “Discouragement on the possibility of running government without corruption has grown; split opinion now prevails,” he said. Survey respondents were managers of 705 Filipino companies in Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, Metro Davao, Cagayan de Oro-Iligan, and Cavite-Laguna-Batangas. They were randomly drawn from lists furnished by cooperating business associations in the study areas, and interviewed by SWS field staff from March 4 to May 11. “Two-thirds of the companies are small or medium enterprises (SMEs) while one-third are large enterprises,” SWS said. One of every two respondents said “most or all” of the firms give bribes to win government contracts, and one of every five bribes its way to private sector contracts. The survey also showed that Filipino managers are enthusiastic about the idea of establishing a Transparency Information Bureau (TIB). The SWS Business Survey introduced the TIB concept as “like a Credit Information Bureau, except that, instead of Credit Ratings, it will make Transparency Ratings on the reputation of individuals, companies, and agencies regarding honesty and ethics in business.” In Metro Manila, 52 percent of the respondents said, “corruption is part of the way the government works.” Meanwhile, in terms of government’s sincerity in fighting corruption, 12 of the 29 agencies rated got positive net ratings while 17 received negative net ratings. Of the 29, eight were rated “good or very good,” nine were seen as “mediocre” or average, and 12 were “bad or very bad.” “Compared to 2006, the ratings are either Better or Not as Bad, only the PCGG (Presidential Commission on Good Governance) is worse,” Mangahas said. Institutions or groups that enjoyed positive ratings were Filipino Business Associations, +66; Department of Trade and Industry, +54; Social Security System, +52; Supreme Court, +45; Department of Health, +32; city and municipal governments, +26; Commission on Audit, +20; Sandiganbayan, +14; and Government Service Insurance System, +13. Agencies rated with “mediocre sincerity” in fighting corruption were the Department of Education, +10; Trial Courts, +10; Ombudsman, +9; Department of Budget and Management, +5; Office of the President, -3; Senate, -7; Presidential Anti-Graft Commission, -8; Department of Agriculture, -8; and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, -9. It was the first time that DTI and Filipino Business Associations were included in the rated groups. Those which “Poor or Very Bad Sincerity” were the Department of Transportation and Communication, -13; Department of the Interior and Local Government, -18; Department of Justice, -19; PCGG, -19; Department of Environment and Natural Resources, -23; Philippine National Police, -23; Land Transportation Office, -31; House of Representatives, -32; Commission on Elections, -36; Bureau of Internal Revenue, -49; Department of Public Works and Highways, -55; and Bureau of Customs, -68. Mangahas said that of the 28 agencies rated in 2006 and this year, 11 got better, 16 turned out to be “not as bad,” and one got worse. In the National Capital Region or Metro Manila, 48 percent of the respondents said the bribes asked from them were for local government permits/licenses; 43 percent for national government permits/licenses; 34 percent for paying income taxes; 31 percent for complying with import regulation; 22 percent for supplying government with goods/services; 19 percent for collecting receivables; and 13 percent for availing of government incentives. Only six percent reported cases of bribery to authorities. On “honest business practice,” 35 percent said they always issue permits, 24 percent claim to keep one set of books and 18 percent said they pay taxes honestly. “Use of these practices is slightly growing in NCR, but is hardly changing in the country as a whole,” the SWS said. The SWS said in the last two years, two of every five companies surveyed claimed spending for anti-fraud and corruption efforts in their companies. Spending averaged P292,000 during the period. In the next two years, one out of two will spend an average of P233,000 to fight corruption. In the last two years, one out of five donated an average of P136,000 to a private anti-corruption fund. In the next two years, one out of two will donate an average of P100,000. The SWS survey found 76 percent of the managers open to tapping the services of TIB. Eighty-two percent said that getting a good Transparency Rating would be valuable for a company, and 87 percent said that getting one would be valuable for the industry in general. The idea of establishing a TIB was first broached in the project’s focus groups of business people. It was decided to test the idea in the next SWS Business Survey, Mangahas said. The survey also showed that 61 percent of the respondents see “good or excellent business weather” over the next two years, up from 46 percent in 2006 and 2005. On the promotion of good business climate, one of every two respondents expressed satisfaction with the national government and two out of three showed the same sentiment for the local government. For her part, Presidential Anti-Graft Commission Chairwoman Constancia de Guzman, told reporters of government’s determined efforts to stamp out corruption. “A lot of things are being done by the government to be able to fight graft and corruption probably not to totally eradicate it because that would really be far from reality,” she said. She said the government aims to lessen or eliminate corruption through reforms citing the Integrity Development Action Plan (IDAP) launched in December 2004. This year, she said, the Office of the President affirmed the dismissal from office of five top ranking officials based on PAGC’s recommendations. She said that 15 undersecretaries are under investigation as of June. She declined to elaborate. “We have a lot of information campaign to tell the public about corruption, what the individuals can share to be able to fight it,” she said. Reacting to the SWS survey, De Guzman said that, “almost all have a favorable rating except PCGG.” But she said that “even those in the negative, you would see the big jump from the low negative to almost neutral.” She said this was a “positive sign that we are
indeed succeeding in the fight against graft and corruption although
there are still a lot of problems because the general thinking is corruption
is still high, that is something that we will now address so that the
next plan of actions we have to work out in the executive branch will
have to be focused.” Source of Article: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=82949
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