SWS survey shows decline in corruption

MANILA, Philippines - Corruption in the Philippine public sector from the point of view of the business community declined over the last three months, the latest survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

The new SWS Survey of Enterprises on Corruption released yesterday revealed that businessmen who have personal knowledge of a corrupt transaction with government in the last three months in their line of business reached a new low of 32 percent.

The survey, which polled executives of 966 companies, was conducted from November 2014 to May 2015.

In the 2012 and 2013 editions of the study, knowledge of government corruption in the last three months of when the survey was conducted stood at 33 percent (the previous record low) and 38 percent, respectively.

In the latest SWS study, the number of executives who said most companies in their sector of business gave bribes to win public sector contracts also reached a new low of 39 percent from a high of 41 percent in 2012 as well as in 2013.

In terms of sincerity in fighting corruption, businessmen gave a “very good” ranking to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Social Security System, Philippine Stock Exchange, Office of the President, and Department of Trade and Industry.

The Bureau of Customs, meanwhile, was the sole agency given with a “very bad” net sincerity in fighting corruption.

As far as the government’s efforts in fighting corruption is concerned, the SWS study revealed a new high of 62 percent in the business community said the government can be run without corruption, while the remaining 38 percent believe corruption is part of the way government works.

In addition, 51 percent of the respondents disagreed the present laws to fight corruption in the country are already adequate.

Overall, 64 percent of businessmen polled said they were satisfied with the national government’s performance in promoting a good business climate, while 68 percent were satisfied when it comes to their city government’s performance.

 “The numbers are improving there’s no question. The question in my mind is it is good enough for us. Is it what we want or do we want better? Do we want more? In the point of view of the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) we want more, we want better. We will not be competitive even with these high numbers,” NCC co-chairman Guillermo Luz said.

The 2014/15 survey was conducted by SWS with support from the USAID-funded Integrity for Investments Initiative, in partnership with the NCC and the Asia Foundation.