Public Perceptions of Corruption in the Military in Europe and the Rest of the World

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the Global Corruption Barometer Survey 2006 and 2007 as they relate to the military, showing that globally the military is regarded as relatively corruption-free compared with other institutions such as political parties and parliaments. Only religious bodies and NGOs benefit from more favourable perceptions. The most positive perceptions of the military are found in Western Europe, while the least favourable are found in Africa, Latin America and Newly Independent States. The disaggregated results also reveal broad variation in perceptions by country, with some surprising scores thrown up. The analysis is enriched by context the local perspectives, provided by anti-corruption experts.

Notes

1. Thanks are extended to all contributors, including from Transparency International secretariat and chapters from Chile, Colombia, Czech, Denmark, Fiji, France, Germany, Kenya, Nigeria, Norway, Philippines, Romania, Serbia, South Africa, Sweden, UK, Ukraine, as well as individual contributors Velizar Shalamanov (George C. Marshall Association of Bulgaria), Ephraim Kleiman (University of Jerusalem, Israel), Burak Bekdil (Defense News, Turkish News Daily) and Steven Shaw (US Air Force).

2. See http://www.DefenceAgainstCorruption.org (accessed 4 December 2007).

3. Paulo Mauro, ‘Corruption and the Composition of Government Expenditure’, Journal of Public Economics (1998) 30(95), pp. 539–552.

4. Paulo Mauro, ‘Corruption and the Composition of Government Expenditure’, Journal of Public Economics (1995) 69(2), pp. 263–279.

5. See for instance Roger Tangri and Andrew Mwenda, ‘Military Corruption and Ugandan Politics since the Late 1990s’, Review of African Political Economy (2003).

6. See for instance John Githongo's dossier on corruption in Kenya, much of which relates to ‘scams’ in the security sector.

7. Speech on ‘the development challenge in crisis states’ by Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for International Development, at the London School of Economics, 4 March 2004, available at http://www.dfid.gov.uk/news/files/sp-developmentcrisisstates4march04.asp.

8. Further information on the survey can be found at http://www.transparency.org/content/download/12169/115654/version/1/file/Global_Corruption_Barometer_2006_Report.pdf.

9. See, for instance, case study of the EUSEC programme on the reform of soldiers’ remuneration in DRC, available at http://www.defenceagainstcorruption.org/index.php?option_com_conte nt&task_view&id_61.

10. See for instance ‘Indonesian military admits to accepting cash from U.S. mining company’ Copyright AP, 29 December 2005, available at http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/2005/12/30/74476/Indonesian-military.htm.

11. Transparency International UK is developing a best practice code of conduct for defence officials for release in early 2009.

12. An analysis of the impact of reforms reducing the number of checkpoints on a road on the size of bribe demanded per checkpoint on a length of road in Aceh, Indonesia is presented in the ‘Global Corruption Report 2008’, Cambridge University Press, July 2008.

13. ‘The Mirror of Russian Corruption: AreWe Foreigners in it? A Review of INDEM's Research on Corruption in Russia’ by Cheryl Ann Sigsbee and Victor Konovalenko, 2005. http://www.in dem.ru/en/publicat/CherylCorrup09.htm (accessed 12 November 2007).

14. See, for instance, ‘The BAE Files’, The Guardian, 7 June 2007.

15. IFES Survey, 2007, ‘Public opinion in Ukraine prior to the 2007 Rada elections’, http://www.ifes.org/publication/c02e80ae0eb56679827e3a5c38b27f15/Ukraine%20Exec%20Summary.pdf.

16. ‘Nineteen Russian Generals Held Responsible for Corruption in 2006’, Copyright ITAR, TASS News Agency, 20 April 2007, available at http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID_11456791&PageNum_0 (accessed 1 November 2007).

17. See ‘Pervasive Corruption in Russia Is 'Just Called Business’ Copyright’ New York Times, 13 August 2005.

18. See http://www.indem.ru/en/publicat/CherylCorrup09.htm (accessed 12 November 2007).

19. Latinobarometero is an annual public opinion survey that involves some 19,000 interviews in 18 Latin American countries, representing more than 400 million inhabitants.

20. See for instance; ‘Timeline in ‘‘Hello Garci’’ scandal’, Inquirer, December 2006, available at http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view_article.php?article_id_40093 (accessed 8 November 2007).