Corruption in government institutions is perceived to have increased in the last few months of the Aquino administration, with the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and Land Transportation Office (LTO) receiving the most unfavorable ratings, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.
The 13th SWS Survey of Enterprises on Corruption was conducted from February 2 to May 6 this year, and involved face-to-face interviews with executives from 950 companies in the seven study areas of Metro Manila, Metro Angeles, Cavite-Laguna-Batangas, Metro Iloilo, Metro Cebu, Metro Davao, and Cagayan de Oro-Iligan.
The survey showed that the number of Filipino executives who said they were seeing “a lot” of public sector corruption increased to 63% in 2016 from 56% in 2013. The 63% for this year is above the record low of 43% in 2012. This is also a return to the 60% to 77% range under the Arroyo administration and is equal to the 63% in 2000 under the Estrada government.
Of the total respondents, 35% said they had personal knowledge of a corrupt transaction with government in their line of business in the three months covered, up from a record low of 32% in 2015.
Forty-two percent said most companies in their sector had given bribes to win public sector contracts, up from a record low of 39% in 2015.
Meanwhile, 67% said “the government can be run without corruption,” while 51% disagreed that “the present laws to fight corruption in our country are already adequate.”
Of the 35 institutions rated for sincerity in fighting corruption, 19 scored favorable net sincerity rating, eight were considered neutral, and eight garnered unfavorable scores.
Of the eight with unfavorable ratings, BOC was the only agency to have a “very bad” rating. SWS noted that BOC had been “very bad” since 2013 after briefly recovering to “bad” in 2012 from “very bad” in 2009 and “execrable,” or the lowest rating, in 2008.
LTO was the only agency with a “bad” rating, falling from “poor” in 2015. It had also been “bad” since 2013.
Agencies with “poor” ratings were the Department of Budget and Management, Philippine National Police, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Transportation, Bureau of Internal Revenue, and House of Representatives.
The sole agency with a “very good” rating was the Securities and Exchange Commission, while nine institutions had net sincerity ratings of “good.” These were the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Labor and Employment, Office of the President, Department of Health, Civil Service Commission, Department of Education, Social Security System, Supreme Court, and Office of the Ombudsman.
Nine institutions had net sincerity ratings of “moderate,” namely, Commission on Audit, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Sandiganbayan, Government Service Insurance System, Department of Justice, barangay governments, city/municipal governments, Commission on Elections, and Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Getting neutral scores were the Department of Finance, Governance Commission for GOCCs, Presidential Commission on Good Government, trial courts, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Senate, Department of Interior and Local Government, and Department of Agriculture.
Image courtesy of Sira Anamwong at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
