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Corruption and Cambodian Households CORRUPTION AND CAMBODIAN HOUSEHOLDS A Quantitative Household Survey on Perceptions, Attitudes and Impact of Everyday Forms of Corrupt Practices in Cambodia - 2010 PACT Cambodia Phnom Penh, Cambodia October 2010 1 Copyright: PACT Cambodia. Phnom Penh Centre Building A 3rd floor, Cnr. Sihanouk & Sothearos Blvd or PO Box 149, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Email: [email protected] Report and questionnaire design: DIBD, Copenhagen (Wendt, (ed.) & Ludwigs) Data sampling: Market Strategy and Development, Phnom Penh Consultants: Mansfield & Lohmann 2 Executive Summary The 2010 Corruption and Cambodian Households survey suggests positive signs in the fight against corruption in Cambodia. Perception of public services and integrity of service and political institutions in Cambodia has improved considerably since an earlier survey in 2005. In particular, there has been a remarkable shift in attitudes towards public services such as health, education, public registry and business licensing. Even perceptions regarding police officers and judges, who scored lowest on the survey, have improved considerably. The amount paid in bribes also appears to have declined, although the use of different methods of calculation in 2005 and 2010 may be partly responsible for the result. In contrast to these positive findings, corruption is now considered the second largest social problem in Cambodia. Only the high cost of living is considered more important. Fully 82% of Cambodians believe that corruption is a problem in Cambodia while only 7% disagree. Poor people living in rural areas pay a relatively higher percentage of their income as corruption compared to middle-income and high-income populations. The 2005 household survey reached the opposite conclusion. Still, the chance of being asked to pay a bribe is greatest in urban areas. Women in households pay bribes more often than men, but this is likely because they tend to manage the household accounts. Women are not asked to pay higher bribes than men. Corruption in Cambodia occurs in a systematic way, since nearly 60% of the time the household offers the bribe or a gift of its own accord. This fits well with the finding that corruption helps secure better services in Cambodia. Almost 30% of the time a bribe is solicited, people know beforehand how to give and how much to give, indicating familiarity with an embedded system. In education, payment is relatively widespread and 20% of respondents report providing money or other things for educational services within the last year. At the same time, public schools score high when it comes to honesty, indicating that people pay the money with some kind of sincerity. Corruption in the health care sector does occur, but it is not considered widespread. Nearly one out of five persons who applied for a public sector job was asked to pay their superiors. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, and the Ministry of Interior are identified as the most problematic institutions. This is in line with the 2005 study where the same two ministries were singled out as the most corrupt. 3 Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 7 1.1 ROAD MAP ......................................................................................................... 8 1.1.1 SURVEY PART I – PARAMETER ASSESSMENT .................................................................... 8 1.1.2 SURVEY PART II – PERCEPTIONS OF CORRUPT PRACTICES ................................................... 8 1.1.3 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................ 9 1.1.4 APPENDIX A RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ......................................................................... 9 1.1.5 APPENDIX B TERMS AND DEFINITIONS ............................................................................ 9 1.1.6 APPENDIX C VOCABULARY FROM EXTORTION TO GIFTS OF KINDNESS .................................. 9 1.1.7 APPENDIX D QUESTIONNAIRE WITH RESULTS ................................................................. 10 1.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ......................................................................................... 10 I. CORRUPTION AND POVERTY .............................................................................................. 10 II. CORRUPTION AND GENDER .............................................................................................. 10 III. PERCEPTION OF CORRUPTION IN CAMBODIA ...................................................................... 10 IV. CORRUPTION AND PUBLIC SERVICES IN CAMBODIA ............................................................. 11 V. CORRUPTION AND GEOGRAPHY ........................................................................................ 11 2 SURVEY 2010 PART I – PARAMETER ASSESSMENT............................................... 12 2.1 BACKGROUND VARIABLES ASSESSMENT ................................................................... 12 2.2 AGE ................................................................................................................. 12 2.3 HIGHEST LEVEL OF EDUCATION ............................................................................... 13 2.3.1 RESPONDENT BACKGROUND ....................................................................................... 14 2.4 SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS .................................................................................... 15 2.5 GENERAL PERCEPTIONS ........................................................................................ 16 2.5.1 HIGH COST OF LIVING IS THE MOST SERIOUS CONCERN ................................................... 17 2.5.2 WEIGHTING OF CONCERNS ......................................................................................... 17 2.5.3 LOCATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF CONCERNS................................................................. 18 2.6 QUALITY OF SERVICES .......................................................................................... 18 2.7 RESPONDENT KNOWLEDGE.................................................................................... 19 2.7.1 THE PUBLIC REGISTRY HAS THE BEST QUALITY OF SERVICES .............................................. 20 3 ANALYZING PERCEPTIONS AND IMPACT OF CORRUPTION .................................. 22 3.1 ANALYZING CORRUPTION AND POVERTY .................................................................. 22 3.2 CORRUPTION AND INCOME ................................................................................... 24 4 CORRUPTION AND GENDER ............................................................................... 26 4.1 WOMEN’S EXPOSURE TO CORRUPTION ..................................................................... 26 4 4.2 GENDER ATTITUDE TOWARDS CORRUPT PRACTICES ....................................................... 27 5 PERCEPTIONS OF CORRUPTION IN CAMBODIA .................................................... 30 5.1 ACCEPTING CORRUPTION ....................................................................................... 30 5.2 GIFT-GIVING WITHOUT SINCERITY ............................................................................ 35 5.3 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CORRUPTION .......................................................................... 36 5.4 CORRUPTION AS EMBEDDED PRACTICE ...................................................................... 39 6 CORRUPTION AND PUBLIC SERVICES IN CAMBODIA ............................................ 41 6.1 THE MOST CORRUPT INSTITUTIONS IN CAMBODIA ....................................................... 42 6.2 PERCEPTIONS OF INSTITUTIONAL INTEGRITY ............................................................... 43 6.3 CORRUPTION IN HEALTH CARE AND EDUCATION .......................................................... 45 6.4 BRIBERY IN APPOINTMENT PROCESSES ...................................................................... 46 7 CORRUPTION AND GEOGRAPHY ......................................................................... 48 8 SUMMARIZING THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS ......................................................... 50 8.1 CORRUPTION AND POVERTY ................................................................................... 50 8.2 CORRUPTION AND GENDER .................................................................................... 50 8.3 PERCEPTIONS OF CORRUPTION IN CAMBODIA ............................................................. 50 8.4 CORRUPTION AND PUBLIC SERVICES IN CAMBODIA ...................................................... 51 8.5 CORRUPTION AND GEOGRAPHY ............................................................................... 51 9 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 52 9.1 OVERALL FINDINGS .............................................................................................. 52 9.2 CORRUPTION AND SERVICES ................................................................................... 52 9.3 HOW CORRUPTION IMPACTS PEOPLE’S EVERYDAY LIFE ................................................. 53 9.4 PERCEPTION OF CORRUPTION ................................................................................. 54 10 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................. 55 APPENDIX A – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................................ 58 SYSTEMATIC RANDOM
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