Gareth Manning, Gleaner Writer

JAMAICA is perceived as the most corrupt country in the western hemisphere, measuring the highest on an index of countries perceived to be most corrupt, a recent Latin American study reveals.

The survey, entitled The Political Culture of Democracy in Jamaica, was conducted by the Latin American Public Opinion Project in 23 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Corruption was defined as the misuse of entrusted power for private benefit. (Transparency International, 2000)

Jamaica outpaced its regional counterparts on the perceived corruption index with a mean score of 85.6 points out of 100, three points above the 2006 survey, which suggests a growing public perception that the island is corrupt. Argentina follows closely, then Guatemala.

But, while the perception that corruption in Jamaica is high, not many Jamaicans see themselves as victims of corruption. Seventy-five per cent of the sample indicate that they have never been a victim of corruption. This is a 10 per cent decline over the last survey.

The data were released to the public on Tuesday at a forum chaired by the United States Agency for International Development at the Knutsford Court Hotel in New Kingston.

"It's a heartening conclusion," commented Chairman of the Centre for Leadership and Governance at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Professor Trevor Munroe.

He said that the survey results could be explained by the fact that while the incidents of petty corruption across the society might have decreased, corruption across some public-sector boards could have increased public perception of widespread corrupt practices in Jamaica.

Professor Munroe also pointed to the fact that there have been at least 17 special reports by the contractor general tabled in Parliament highlighting glaring misuse of authority and failure to abide by government policies.

He said that given the level of intolerance for corruption and the perception among Jamaicans, the authorities must fully enforce the law to impress upon Jamaicans that everything is being done to reduce the incidence of corruption.

"There is a great deal that is pending," he added, noting that agencies of government have been consistently slow in taking action when they identify corruption, causing people's intolerance to develop into frustration.

Rule of law

Chairman of the Dispute Resolution Foundation, Donna Parchment-Brown, shared similar views: "At the heart of corruption is rejection of the rule of law," she said, adding that citizens needed to understand the laws so that they could hold leaders accountable.

In the meantime, Assistant Commissioner of Police Novelette Grant said that the findings were not surprising in relation to where people faced the most corruption.

Most of the persons surveyed identified the public-health system as the most corrupt, followed by government revenue offices and the courts. Police corruption was among the least forms of corruption people claimed to have experienced.

The researchers justified the results by noting that the findings were heavily dependent on the systems that people interfaced with most. They noted, however, that there was a strong possibility that the frustration emanating from the removal of user fees in public-health facilities could have worsened the risk of corruption in public-health facilities.

"Our regulatory framework - its weaknesses - lends it to abuse, misuse and of course, corruption," Grant said.

She added that the police were concerned about the perception of corruption in the Jamaica Constabulary Force and its effects on citizens' trust of the police.

"You need to get people to trust you. It has always been something that has bothered us within the organisation when we recognised that we were like salmon trying to swim upstream in an environment of high distrust," she said.

The survey used a sample of 1,499 people, 18 years and older, representative of the voting population in terms of gender, age and geographic distribution based on the 2001 population census. The margin of error was + or - 2.5 per cent.