• Indicates higher confidence in courts but less in Police
• Low levels of trust in Govt.

By Shailendree Wickrama Adittiya

As much as 72% of the population may be unaware how to make use of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) with more needing to be done to tackle corruption in Sri Lanka, a new study by Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) shows.

The study, which had a 1,300 sample size, indicated that a large segment of the public were unaware of a mechanism to report corruption, the Global Corruption Barometer: Sri Lanka 2019 revealed.

According to the survey results, launched by TISL yesterday, 11% had never heard of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) and 28% had heard the name but did not know what they did.

Sharing this key finding of the study, TISL Executive Director Asoka Obeyesekere said: “CIABOC has a two-year action plan which is very ambitious and it is important to ensure that this awareness around ways in which citizens can access CIABOC is built and enhanced.”

The Global Corruption Barometer: Sri Lanka, 2019 was based on a sample of 1,300 individuals from all nine provinces of the country. Data was collected through a series of face-to-face surveys conducted in Sinhala and Tamil during the first quarter of 2019.

The survey looked at corruption in politics, reporting bribery, and attitudes towards corruption. Key findings include 73% of the 1,300 sample saying they have a fair amount or great deal of trust in the courts, while only 57% shared the same levels of trust in the Police. Low levels of trust in the Government was also seen among respondents, with 20% saying they had no trust at all.

Discussing the low trust in Government and Police, Obeyesekere said: “it’s also about the Government and Police doing more to build trust in themselves to ensure that this enormous deficit is actually addressed.”

He added that: “We need to acknowledge that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s manifesto has spoken about the need to fight corruption and the fact that it is essential that those manifesto commitments are properly resourced as well to ensure that corruption can be properly tackled in light of the findings of this public survey as well.”

The survey also found that 13% of respondents had paid a bribe at least once within the past 12 months, of which 60% had contact with public clinics or hospitals during this period and, of them, 5% paid a bribe. In addition to this, 27% interacted with Government officials and among them, 13% paid a bribe.

Looking at reasons for paying a bribe, 52% of the 164 respondents that had paid a bribe said they were not asked to pay a bribe but knew it was expected while only 9% said they were asked to pay a bribe. Additionally, 18% admitted that they offered to pay a bribe to get things done quicker or better.

Of the 164 that paid a bribe, 63% did not report the incident and 43% of the total sample said they fear reprisals when reporting corruption.

Pix by Lasantha Kumara

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