Corruption Data
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
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.
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.
Survey assessing public attitudes towards, and experience of, corruption in around 50 countries.
Facts & Figures (by courtesy of the Stop Corruption website and others)
Economic cost of corruption
The annual total of bribes paid worldwide is US $1 trillion - This is considered to be a conservative estimate of actual bribes paid worldwide in both developed and developing countries (‘The Costs of Corruption’, World Bank News & Broadcast, April 8th 2004).
The cost of corruption in Africa – is estimated at more than US$ 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 (Bunt. E, ‘Corruption ‘costs Africa billions’’, BBC News, 18th September 2002).
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).
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) (‘Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative: Challenges, Opportunities and Action Plan’, The World Bank, June 2007)
400% GDP gain from fighting corruption - A one standard-deviation increase in any one of a number of governance indicators in a World Bank study causes between a two-and-a-half and four-fold increase in per capita incomes, a reduction in infant mortality of the same magnitude and a fifteen to twenty-five percent increase in adult literacy (Kaufmann. D, Kraay. A and Zoido-Lobatan. P, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 2196, p.3)
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).
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 (‘International business attitudes to corruption - survey 2006’, Control Risks, p.5).
Corruption remains a significant barrier to business in Central and South-east Europe - Some 31% (of survey respondents) believed that their company had failed to win a contract or gain new business because a competitor had paid a bribe during the past year, and 40% believed that they had failed to win a contract for this reason in the past five years (Gosztonyi. K and Bray. J, ‘Business, corruption and economic crime in Central and South-east Europe’, Control Risks 2009, p.3).
Corruption in the Tanzanian construction sector - The Tanzania Civil Engineering Contractors Association (TACECA) estimates that 90% of contractors pay between 10% to 15% of contract value in bribes. Moreover, in 2004, the Engineers Registration Board (ERB) and the Association of Consulting Engineers Tanzania (ACET) estimated that over 90% of construction contract awards and about 70% of consultancy assignments were secured through corruption. (East African Bribery Index 2010, Transparency International Kenya, p.11)
Extortionate bribe demands - In Mexico, nearly half (44%) of all survey respondents (those reporting bribe demands between July 11th 2007 and January 6th 2010) reported being the victim of an extortionate demand, including avoiding personal harm or harm to business interests (23% of all bribe demands), receiving the timely delivery of a service to which the target of the bribe demand is already entitled (15%), or being solicited for a bribe in order to receive payment for services already rendered (6%). The corresponding figure from surveys in China stands at 54%, 58% in Ukraine, 77% in India, and 63% in Russia (2010 BRIBEline Mexico Report, 2008 BRIBEline China Report, 2009 BRIBEline Ukraine Report, 2009 BRIBEline India Report, 2009 BRIBEline Russia Report, BRIBEline).
Corruption discourages investment – Investment in a relatively corrupt country compared to an uncorrupt one can be as much as 20 per cent more costly. (Kaufmann. D, ‘Economic corruption: some facts’, 8th International Anti-Corruption Conference 1997)
Social cost of corruption
50% loss in health funds - This is the estimated percentage of allocated funds that do not reach clinics and hospitals in Ghana (Lindelow. M, Kushnarova. I and Kaiser. K, in ‘Measuring corruption in the health sector: what we can learn from public expenditure tracking and service delivery surveys in developing countries’, Transparency International, 2006 Global Corruption Report, p.30)
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 $4 billion a year or around five times the annual budget for the Indonesian department of health (‘Tackling Corruption, Transforming Lives: Accelerating Human Development in Asia and the Pacific’, United Nations Development Program, 2008, p.98)
An estimated US$ 50 is paid in bribes (often called facilitation fees) for every cubic metre of timber felled in Cambodia. (‘Cambodia Public Expenditure Review: Enhancing the Effectiveness of Public Expenditure, Volume II Main Report’, January 8th 1999, The World Bank, p.13)
In 1997 between 2.5 million m3 and 4.5 million m3 of timber was felled representing US$ 125 million to US$ 225 million in bribes alone given these US$ 50 bribe payments per cubic metre. 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).
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 (in ‘Executive Summary’, Transparency International, 2008 Global Corruption Report).
The cost of bribes paid by low-income Mexican homes – 24 percent of household earnings in 2005 (‘Indice Nacional De Corrupcion Y Buen Gobierno’, Transparencia Mexicana, August 2006).
Corruption in East Africa: over half of those polled indicated that they had paid bribes to access services. 68% of those who paid bribes in Uganda did so to facilitate the delivery of services which are already catered for by their taxes; the figures were 51% in Kenya and 55% in Tanzania (East African Bribery Index 2009, Transparency International Kenya).
Bribes for public services – In Burundi, studies and surveys done by the Economic and Development Institute (IDEC) such as the Stratégie Nationales de Gouvernance et de Lutte contre la corruption, 2009 show that 50% of business people were asked to pay bribes for public services (East African Bribery Index 2010, Transparency International Kenya, p.12)
Missing school funds in Uganda - A Public Expenditure Tracking Survey in Ugandan schools indicates that on average, only 13% of per-student non-wage funds provided by the central government reached schools during 1991-1995. Roughly 70% of the schools did not receive anything. Two follow-up PETS implemented 5 years later, found the flow of per-student non-wage funds reaching schools to have increased to between 80-90% on average. (Kanungo. P, ‘Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys – Application in Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana and Honduras’, The World Bank, 2004, p.2)
Bribery in primary education - 86% of parents polled in Nicaragua reported paying mandatory contributions, ‘contribuciones’, to teachers. Of the 47% of girls who managed to get into primary school in the Sindh province in Pakistan, nearly all complained of these mandatory contributions (CIET International, ‘Corruption: The Invisible Price Tag on Education’, 12th October 1999)
Missing public funds in Tanzania - A PETS was carried out in Tanzania in 1999, to investigate whether or not funds from central government reached public service providers at the ground level. It was found that, considering 45 primary schools and 36 health facilities in three districts, about 57% of education funds and 41% of health funds (dispersed by the centre for non-wage education and health expenditures) instead reached non education sectors or were used for personal gain. (Kanungo. P, ‘Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys – Application in Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana and Honduras’, The World Bank, 2004, p.3)
Corruption obstructing medical care - In Bangalore the average patient in a maternity ward pays approximately US $22 in bribes to receive adequate medical care. (‘Millennium Development Goals are unreachable without commitment to fighting corruption’, Transparency International, September 2005)
Grand Corruption
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).
US$3 to US$5 billion of Nigeria’s public assets were looted and sent abroad by Abacha, his family and their associates, over the five year period November 1993-June 1998. Using unit cost estimates provided by the World Bank, these amounts could provide anti-retroviral therapy for 2-3 million HIV–AIDS infected persons over a ten-year period’ (‘Corruption: Myths and Realities in a developing country context, Second Richard Sabot Memorial Lecture’, Dr.Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Finance Minister of Federal Republic of Nigeria, 20th June 2007).
The Kibaki government has spent $12.5 million on luxury cars, largely for personal use by top Kenyan officials. That is enough to pay for eight years of school for 25,000 children. (Baltimore Sun, 28th February 2006)
Raul Salinas, brother of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas amassed US$120 million as a result of corruption, an amount the World Bank estimates could have covered annual health care costs for 594,000 Mexicans (‘Corruption Facts’, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)
Estimates of alleged embezzlement (Jones. S, ‘Measuring Corruption’, OPM Briefing Notes, January 2007):
| Leader | Country | Period | Range of estimates |
| Suharto | Indonesia | 1967-98 | $15 – $35 billion |
| Marcos | Philippines | 1972-86 | $5 - $10 billion |
| Mobutu | Zaire | 1965-97 | $5 billion |
| Abacha | Nigeria | 1993-98 | $2 - $5 billion |
| Milosevic | Yugoslavia | 1989-2000 | $1 billion1 |
| Fujimori | Peru | 1990-1999 | $600 million |
| Duvalier | Haiti | 1971-86 | $800 million |
| Lazarenko | Ukraine | 1996-97 | $114 - 200 million |
| Aleman | Nicaragua | 1997-2002 | $100 million |
| Estrada | Philippines | 1998-2001 |
$78 - $80 million |
Petty corruption
The last four years have seen very little change in levels of petty bribery: 11 per cent of respondents in 2009 reported paying bribes compared with 9 per cent in 2005. (Global Corruption Barometer 2009, Transparency International, p.8)
Corruption perceptions
42 percent of Moscow residents polled in a 2008 nationwide poll admitted they had given bribes to public officials. The poll also showed that Moscow is regarded as the most corrupt city in Russia (Public Opinion Foundation, 2008).
Lack of accountability - The most important cause of local government corruption in Pakistan, according to Pakistanis, is a ‘lack of accountability’: comprising 20.76% of total responses given to the question ‘In your opinion, what factors are responsible for corruption in the local government system?’. Lack of transparency (15.1% of responses) and low salaries (14.56% of responses) are the next most cited reasons (‘National Corruption Perceptions Survey’, Transparency International Pakistan, 1st July 2010)
Fighting corruption
Action against corrupt officials - In a household survey, 89% of those asked for a bribe in Kenya did not report the incident to any person in authority. The same figure for Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi is respectively 92.9%, 93% and 92%. When citing reasons for not reporting, the majority (35.6%, 39.4%, 41.8% and 32.2% in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi respectively) said they felt no action would be taken against the corrupt official. (East African Bribery Index 2010, Transparency International Kenya)
International anti-bribery enforcement action - Of 109 known bribe recipient countries (countries where government officials are known to have received bribes), only 48 countries have initiated an international anti-bribery enforcement action of some kind (Global Enforcement Report 2010, TRACE International, p.7)
Two thirds (of surveyed FTSE 100 companies) said it was not possible to do business in some countries without being involved in bribery and corruption, yet only 35 percent had stopped doing business there (‘Blessing in disguise’, KPMG 2010, p.4)
The general public consider their governments’ efforts to tackle corruption to be ineffective. Only 31 per cent perceived them as effective, compared to the 56 percent that viewed government anti-corruption measures to be ineffective. (in ‘Executive Summary’, Global Corruption Barometer 2009, Transparency International, p.3)
Benefits of reducing corruption - If Bangladesh were to improve the integrity and efficiency of its bureaucracy to the level of that of Uruguay its yearly GDP growth rate would rise by over half a percentage point (Mauro. P, ‘Corruption and Growth’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol.110, No., Aug 1995, p.681-712)
Operating a clean business attracts customers. The Global Corruption Barometer 2009 asked respondents whether they would be willing to pay more to buy from a ’corruption-free company‘. Half of the respondents answered positively. (Global corruption Barometer 2009, Transparency International, p.16)
More than a million people – a remarkable 25 per cent of the population – participated in municipal forums held by the TI chapter in Nicaragua, Ética y Transparencia, to monitor the country’s 2008 municipal elections. The forums brought together citizens, institutional representatives and candidates to discuss campaign proposals. (Annual Report 2008, Transparency International, p.5)
Sources of corruption
Bribery among government officials - Bribe demands made by individuals associated with the government as a group comprise 85% of all bribes reported to BRIBEline in Mexico and China, 91% in India and Russia, and 92% in Ukraine. (2010 BRIBEline Mexico Report, 2008 BRIBEline China Report, 2009 BRIBEline Ukraine Report, 2009 BRIBEline India Report, 2009 BRIBEline Russia Report)
Judicial corruption was present in 30 of 48 countries’ judiciaries studied in one report (‘Ninth annual report on Attacks on Justice’, Centre for Independence of Judges and Lawyers, March 1997, February 1999)
Comments & quotations
Importance of the problem of corruption
‘Corruption is as deadly as the HIV/Aids virus – it’s a cancer, whether it is the 12 official signatures needed on a license, the policeman taking bribes at the border or the tractor that is paid for but not delivered.’
‘Corruption hits hardest at the poorest in society.’
‘Public sector corruption is one of the greatest obstacles to development. It costs Kenya well over a billion euros a year.’
‘(Corruption) debases democracy, undermines the rule of law, distorts markets, stifles economic growth, and denies many their rightful share of economic resources or life-saving aid.’
‘As a result of corruption, private mansions are being built instead of bridges; swimming pools are dug instead of irrigation systems; funds destined to run hospitals and buy medicines find their way into the pockets of corrupt officials; economic growth is held back; and public trust in government is undermined.’
‘The poor cannot pay the bribes, thus, corruption denies them their right to equal access to education, and consequently to one of the most powerful mechanisms to escape poverty.’
‘Corruption undermines democracy and the rule of law. It leads to violations of human rights. It erodes public trust in government. It can even kill.’
‘I didn’t realize the situation could be as bad as what I have seen’
UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers in Indonesia, August 2002
‘Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it’s set a rolling it must increase’,
‘Corruption, the greatest single bane of our society today’
‘Corruption is a terrible disease that destroys a country from within. Corruption begets corruption, turning ruling elites into self-perpetuating cliques, destroying peoples’ faith in government and law’
‘The only people [whose crops are] being eradicated are those without money or connections’
‘People who fight against corruption are put in prison, but people involved in corruption go free’,
‘We must ask ourselves: Do we live in a society where corruption is a moral perversity to the normal flow of things, or is it the main part or even the spinal cord of the system of administrative management in the country?’
‘Corruption is…a cold, vicious, often violent sacrifice of citizen security, for a narrow, greedy, private, personal profit on the part of a crooked official’,
‘Some years ago I interviewed the chief executive officer of a successful Thai manufacturing firm as part of a pilot survey project. While trying to figure out a good way to quantify the firm’s experience with government regulations and corruption in the foreign trade sector, the CEO exclaimed: “I hope to be reborn as a custom official.” When a well-paid CEO wishes for a job with low official pay in the government sector, corruption is almost surely a problem!’,
‘I think it’s also true to say that anti-corruption and human rights remain the most challenging issue areas because of their connectivity to deeper societal cultural characteristics, and change there is by definition more challenging’
‘Corruption is everywhere; it’s in the south, the north, east and west and the public and private sectors. So the question is: how do you cut through and make real change’
‘Corruption breaks trust and destroys faith in the state, it creates cynicism and muddles expectations. So in Nigeria corruption is in fact strengthened by the fact that people come to expect less and less from the state the more they are disappointed by it. This presents problems for Nigeria’s democratic transition’,
‘Petty corruption is everywhere every day, visible for everyone. Your wife is going to give birth to a child, and you want both of them to survive: drop something extra for the head of the clinic. You broke some traffic rule: drop something extra in cash in the policeman's car, but never expect him to touch it, as long as you are near. You need an urgent visa for a family member (urgent means within less than two weeks): refer to the mostly underpaid people in the ministries, who know how to solve the problem, even within a day’
‘Its corrosive effect from the moral perspective. When morality and ethics are affected, the prestige of our political system is undermined and everything goes downhill. That's why I agree with those who say corruption is a national security problem.’
‘Corruption is a major drain on the effective use of resources for education and should be drastically curbed.’
Causes of corruption
‘Corruption is like a tango: it is a dance for two. If there is a corrupt customs official, it is because there is a businessman who is rewarding him; if there is a serious tax-evader, it is because there is a bureaucrat who is being bribed.’
‘One must beware of ministers who can do nothing without money, and those who want to do everything with money’
‘In my mind I said, ‘look, if the tenders were not advertised, how did the companies that bid for these contracts get to find out that these jobs were up for grabs?’,
‘You know that if they pay for their positions, they will make their positions pay off”,
Fighting corruption
‘Thanks to organisations like Transparency International…those who used to perpetuate corruption without fear have now become the hunted.’
Issues of corruption for multinational banks were something we did not talk about ten years ago. Thanks to the work of Transparency International, this is an issue on everyone’s radar.’
‘I think that every country needs a strong Transparency International chapter.’
‘Corruption is a very short-sighted attitude, because next time others are better at it.’
‘Corruption is a problem that all countries have to confront. Solutions, however, can only be home-grown. National leaders need to take a stand. Civil society plays a key role as well.’
‘It is not enough to merely point an accusing finger at corrupt officials, tax evaders and criminals in the annual trillion-dollar illicit-money equation. The recipient side of the equation must be highlighted as well.’
‘The reality that laws making corrupt practices criminal may not always be enforced is no justification for accepting corrupt practices. To fight corruption in all its forms is simply the right thing to do’
‘Resolutely punishing and effectively preventing corruption bears on popular support for the party and on its very survival, and is therefore a major political task the party must attend to at all times.’
"You can fix the tail all you want, but when it comes to corruption, if you don't engage the head, nothing will help the general organism."
In The Associated Press, 7th July 2008
‘People have already started using them and it is working. One auto-rickshaw driver was pulled over by a policeman in the middle of the night who said he could go if he was 'taken care of'. The driver gave him the note instead. The policeman was shocked but smiled and let him go. The purpose of this is to instill confidence in people to say no to bribery.’
‘In the fight against illegalities and corruption, words, rather than action, frequently dominate’, ‘Illegal activities and corruption in the forest sector’,
‘...before last year’s April elections 31 of the 36 state governors were being investigated, but none could be prosecuted while in office, regardless of the outcomes of the investigations.’
‘I would just like to express the complete willingness of the Paraguayan government to take into account all plans, suggestions and experiences that can be brought to us regarding the fight against corruption in other countries. We are facing a problem that affects the entire world; we are not facing an exclusively Paraguayan issue. Therefore, the fight must be coordinated and requires close international solidarity.’
‘The Bank explicitly considers in its lending decisions the extent to which the quality of governance and the magnitude of corruption affect a borrowing country’s economy’
‘Fighting corruption in the Philippines is like trying to kill an elephant with a flyswatter’
‘We don’t have many things to offer to attract business…But what is within our reach is to create an environment of no corruption’,
The role of developed countries
‘Corruption is bleeding Africa to death and the cost is borne by the poor. Some estimates put money corruptly leaving the continent at greater than that arriving as aid. Much of the money is banked in Britain or our overseas territories and dependencies and sometimes British citizens or companies are involved in corrupt deals. We want our government to get tough on corruption.’
‘What keeps me awake isn’t the prospect of deliberate corruption, it is the fear of inadvertent, naïve errors – the sort which arise from unthinking submission to local custom’,
‘This particular law will prove a blessing in disguise to those who grasp, act on and embrace its implications. It creates a timely opportunity for securing long-term advantages in corporate culture and control, which will in turn benefit the bottom line’,
‘The Bank explicitly considers in its lending decisions the extent to which the quality of governance and the magnitude of corruption affect a borrowing country’s economy’
Corruption in sport
‘Federations in some countries encounter problems with national authorities and therefore I specifically want the introduction of a European sports police’,
‘…senior officials of world sport bodies are often treated like top diplomats or even head of states; they demand such treatment in negotiations regarding the organisation of big events. They also demand tax exemptions for big events like the FIFA World Cup – and they get whatever they ask for from bidding countries’