Corruption Data

Thursday, 27 August 2009

Due to its nature, the scale of corruption is impossible to quantify with precision. However, there are informed estimates, some of which are quoted on this page.

Transparency International data sources

Corruption Perceptions Index

Annual index ranking countries according to the perceived level of corruption among public officials. Many organisations worldwide use the CPI in their risk assessment procedures.

Bribe Payers Index

Index that ranks major exporting countries according to the perceived willingness of their exporters to pay bribes overseas – and identifies which industrial sectors are perceived as most corrupt.

Global Corruption Barometer

Survey assessing public attitudes towards, and experience of, corruption in around 50 countries.

Facts & Figures (by courtesy of the Stop Corruption website and others)

Corruption costs US $1 trillion in bribes - This is considered to be a conservative estimate of actual bribes paid worldwide in both developed and developing countries. (The World Bank Institute)

25% of African states’ GDP lost to corruption each year - The amount lost to corruption each year totals US $148 billion (covers the full range of corruption, from petty bribes to inflated public procurement contracts). (U4 Anti-corruption Resource Centre, 2007)

Losses equal 20% to 40% of ODA - Proceeds of corruption in bribes received by public officials from developing and transition countries are estimated to be between US $20 billion to US $40 billion per year - this figure is equivalent to 20% to 40% of Official Development Assistance. (ODA) (The World Bank, Star Report, 2007)

400% GDP gain from fighting corruption - Countries that seriously tackle corruption can expect, in the medium-term, up to a four-fold increase in income per capita. (World Bank)

50% loss in health funds - This is the estimated percentage of allocated funds that do not reach clinics and hospitals in Ghana. (Transparency International, 2006 Global Corruption Report)

Loss of natural resources - Corruption accelerates the depletion of natural resources, notably primary forests and inshore fishing grounds, which many communities rely on for their livelihoods. The government of Indonesia has estimated that lost forest revenue costs the nation up to US $4 billion a year or around five times the annual budget for the Indonesian department of health. (UNDP report, Accelerating Human Development in Asia and the Pacific, 2008)

Missed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - In developing countries, corruption raises the cost of connecting a household to a water network by as much as 30%, inflating the cost of achieving the MDG on water and sanitation by more than US $48 billion or nearly half of annual global aid outlays. (Transparency International, Global Corruption Report 2008)

EUR 6 billion price tag for white-collar crime - German companies lose more than EUR 6 billion a year due to corruption, embezzlement and fraud. (GermanMartinLutherUniversity of Halle-Wittenberg, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Germany's TNS-Emnid, 2007)

US $50 billion in corrupt money - This is the approximate amount of corrupt money deposited each year into western bank accounts and tax havens. (Raymond Baker)

US $250 billion in laundered funds - This is the estimate of laundered money from developed and transitional economies that makes its way into US banks each year. (Raymond Baker)

0.5 to 1.0 percentage point drag on economic growth - Widespread corruption can cause the growth rate of a country to be 0.5 to 1.0 percentage points lower than that of a similar country with little corruption. (World Bank)

An estimated US$ 50 is paid in bribes for every cubic metre of timber felled in Cambodia. In 1997 between 2.5 million and 4.5 million cubic metres of timber was felled representing US$ 125 million to US$ 225 million in bribes alone. To this figure can be added the potential value to the state of the economic rent of the timber itself, between US$ 184 million and US$ 337 million. At the lower estimate this represents a lost revenue of US$ 309 million derived from finite state resources, over 73 % of the national annual budget of US$ 419 million. Official forestry revenue contributed US$ 12.4 million to the budget during the same period. (Global Witness)

Percentage of companies who have to pay bribes - 15 per cent of all companies in industrialised countries have to pay bribes to win or retain business. In Asia this figure is at 40%. In the countries of the former Soviet Union 60 per cent of all companies must pay bribes to do business. (United Nations’ World Development Report 1997)

Corruption is bad for business - a quarter of UK-based international companies surveyed in 2006 said they had lost business to corrupt competitors in the last 5 years. (Control Risks)

The cost of bribes paid by low-income Mexican homes – 24 percent of household earnings in 2005. (National Index on Corruption and Governance)

The cost of corruption in Africa – is estimated at more than US$ 148 billion a year.  This is thought to represent 25% of Africa’s GDP and to increase the cost of goods by as much as 20 percent. (The Economist)

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