But graft is still on the increase

Cape Town - An assessment of corruption in the country showed that perceptions of the phenomenon were worse than the reality, with 62% of businesses believing that corruption had become accepted business practice, Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said yesterday.

However, only 11% of those surveyed reported having experienced corruption an increase from the 2% in 1997.

This is contained in the Corruption Country Assessment Report from a study undertaken by government with support from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime last year.

Fraser-Moleketi said the report would serve as a baseline to measure progress in combating and preventing corruption. It includes the findings of three surveys on perceptions and experiences of corruption.

The report found that 41% of South Africans perceived corruption as one of the most important problems in the country, while 39% believed that while there was a lot of corruption it was not the most pressing issue.

The business sector (62%) believed that corruption had become accepted business practice though it was probably not seen as important in making investment decisions. Only 12% refrained from making a major investment because of corruption.

Sectors experiencing the most bribery were construction, agriculture, forestry and fishing.

The most common areas of corruption were seeking employment (4,4%); welfare (2,3%); electricity and water (3,2%); and housing and land (2,6%).

The surveys established that between 20% and 50% of public officials thought the public always sought a "back door" solution. In the home affairs department, 33% admitted to having been approached with a bribe.

Clients of public services such as health, police and home affairs in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng estimated that between 15% and 30% of public officials there were corrupt, while 10% indicated that public officials expected some form of extra payment for services rendered.

"The managers (in the public service) interviewed held quite a negative view of corruption in their own departments, some claiming that even 75% of staff is untrustworthy and involved in low-level corruption in the form of bribery."

More than one third of public officials in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng admitted to having been approached by a client wanting to give them a gift in exchange for a service provided. Slightly more than one in 10 public officials admitted to accepting such a gift.

The surveys found that officials were responsible for uncovering 60% of corruption, civil society 18%, whistleblowers 13% and investigative journalism 8%. Of the official processes, 50% were internal departmental investigations.

"The report provides for the first time a comprehensive overview of the phenomenology and nature of and the responses to corruption in SA," said an executive summary.

"Although comprehensive, it is not complete. There are still major gaps in the knowledge of the incidence of corruption as well as in the systematic trends in perceptions of corruption. There are no consolidated statistics of corruption incidences or of the internal or external legal (civil, criminal and administrative) responses to such incidents."

With acknowledgements to Linda Ensor and the Business Day.