13 October, 2008 - A Corruption Perception Survey published by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in September this year ranked the education ministry as the poorest service deliverer, followed by the health and agriculture ministries.

The result is only natural as education, health and agriculture are the core of every citizen’s life and their services are more widespread than other sectors, stated the survey report, which collected information from more than 6,600 respondents. The respondents represented every group of the society: government, public, corporate, private, armed forces, farmers and students.

About 34 percent of the participants ranked the education ministry as poorest in terms of service delivery, while 23 percent ranked health as second poorest service deliverer.

The perception survey started in December 2006 to gauge the forms, causes and trends of corruption and rank sectors in terms of service delivery as people perceived them, according to the report.

Among the list of various possible forms of corruption, about 55 percent of the respondents agreed that ‘nepotism and favouritism’ are the most prevalent form of corruption, followed by ‘misuse of public funds’ and ‘bribery’. The survey listed wants (greedy, never enough), needs, discriminatory and non-uniform application of laws and rules, lack of information and transparency on rules and procedures as the major causes of corruption.

Participants of the survey also felt that corruption has increased over the last five years. While 43 percent of the respondents feel corruption has increased, 33 percent perceived status quo.

ACC officials said that the survey generated valuable information, that could form the basis for future directions on anti-corruption strategy. “The survey was also aimed at raising public awareness and to study the perception on corruption,” said an ACC official. “We’ll conduct a similar survey in another two years time to study the improvements.”

The survey also reported that, though corruption is pervasive at all levels and sectors, the majority of government employees perceived corruption to exist more at the higher levels. Private employees and students saw corruption at mid level and farmers at the lower level. The report stated that the perception was determined by the interaction respondents had in their normal life.

The respondents were also asked to share their personal experiences with corruption in both public and private sectors for the survey. The survey also captured the difficulties of the respondents to avail services and the means of corrupt practices they resorted to.

The perception survey is the first empirical study on corruption in the country. However, the Centre for Bhutan Studies had conducted a random and limited interview that catalogued various forms of corruption in 1999.