JAKARTA: Small-scale corruption is widespread throughout the Asia-Pacific region and is contributing to the poverty of millions, according to a United Nations report released here Thursday.
The report, "Tackling Corruption, Transforming Lives," published by the United Nations Development Program, examines the issue from the bottom up, focusing on the ways in which petty bribery and graft hinder the poor's ability to receive essential services. It also calls on governments to clean up the police, health, education and environmental sectors.
The report lays out a seven-point plan governments can use to reduce what it calls "pervasive" corruption.
"Till now attention on corruption has concentrated more on its effects on economic growth and the business climate and less on the impact on human development - on the ways in which bribery and graft siphon off scarce national resources and weaken governments' abilities to deliver public services and protect the interests of the poor," the report says.
The report follows a major UN conference on corruption held on the Indonesian island of Bali earlier this year and marks the most recent effort by the world body to enlist countries into the 2005 UN Convention Against Corruption, which requires member nations to implement comprehensive reforms.
A major theme of the report is cross-border cooperation. Although 19 Asia-Pacific countries have signed the convention, only 10 so far have ratified it.
"Uprooting corruption will not just improve governance and economic efficiency; it will also help reduce poverty and promote human development," the report says. "In this light, anti-corruption measures are not just about prevention or punishment. They are also about establishing fairer societies. The history of corruption does not have to be the region's destiny."
According to opinion surveys cited in the report, politicians, the police and the judiciary have the worst reputations for corruption in the region, followed closely by tax officials. One study found two-thirds of those surveyed considered the judiciary to be corrupt. Education and medical services are ranked in the middle of the scale. Utilities and permit services, although still very corrupt, are viewed as the least problematic.
In all these areas, people reported having to pay bribes. In one survey, 20 percent of those interviewed said they had paid a bribe in 2006.
The United Nations estimates that bribes received by public officials in developing countries total $20 billion to $40 billion a year.
"Petty corruption is a misnomer," said Anuradha Rajivan, the team leader for the report. "Dollar amounts may be relatively small, but the demands are incessant, the number of people affected is enormous and the share of poor people's income diverted to corruption."
The report also highlights the impact of corruption on natural resources. The economic benefits they should provide are all too often drained by corruption, the report says. In Indonesia alone, the report estimates, $1 billion a year is lost through informal payments and bribes in the logging industry.
Illegal logging and other corrupt practices in the management of natural resources are especially damaging to the poor, the report says, noting that small farmers and indigenous people are often driven into poverty as a result of land expropriations.
The report suggests a number of tactics that could help reduce such corruption, including the institution of a merit-based civil service as well as raising civil servant salaries, and enhancing press freedom and international cooperation.
One of the best ways to curb graft and bribery, however, the report says, is to lead by example and prosecute the "big fish."
"Prosecuting and punishing the rich and famous," it says, can "enhance the credibility of the strategy and has the added advantage of deterring others, especially junior civil servants."
Indonesia, which is regularly ranked one of the most corrupt countries in the world, has re-energized its campaign to prosecute large-scale graft, an effort led by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was elected in 2004 on promises of clearing out corrupt officials. He spoke Thursday at the release of the report.
On Wednesday, Indonesia's corruption court sentenced a former ambassador to Malaysia to two years in prison for having overcharged for immigration documents and shared the profits with his staff.
Several other high-ranking officials, including a former religious affairs minister and a former provincial governor, also have been jailed.
In this light, the report acknowledges improvements across the region in addressing corruption, and it encourages governments and civilians to "seize the moment."
"The tide seems to be turning - hesitantly, perhaps, and in uncertain directions, but there are definite signs of actions that increasingly confront corruption," the report says. "Citizens are becoming increasingly impatient - expecting cleaner government and businesses - and governments are starting to respond."
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