|
LET me Tickle your mind again and again with corruption issue. And
you know there are plenty of people who would be reminded,
particularly in this time of the year when we renew business
licenses in some agencies manned by corrupt and inefficient
bureaucrats.
Under their system, if you want to pay your
taxes, some lowly-paid government officials wearing Hugo Boss
designer clothes and Christian Dior jewelry will look at each other
with a funny wink as they write some secret code that neither you
nor the CIA could understand. But that’s not the weird
thing.
The most difficult part is queuing in some
government offices that have become a very popular contact sport
these days, attracting hundreds of thousands of taxpayers, every
single one of whom is standing in line ahead of me.
Even if I ask my messenger to do it for me, I
feel it’s inhumane to force somebody who has the sincerity of
paying taxes and yet suffer the agony of waiting in line behind some
taxpayers who are willing to pay bribes and at the same time view it
as some kind of recreational activity.
Then we wonder: What does corruption cost us?
The Opacity Index, developed by Price Waterhouse Coopers may provide
some answers. The index measures levels of opacity—defined
as “the lack of clear, accurate, formal, easily discernible, and
widely accepted practices.”
The most popular equivalent of Opacity Index is
Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI).
It measures bribes received by governments and their officials,
except that it reflects only one aspect of a very complex picture,
according to Christos and Mary Papoutsy, founders and publishers of
Hellenic Communication Service in Greece.
They say that the “potential for opacity
exists in five principal areas, and no country is likely to earn a
perfect score. There may be corruption in government
bureaucracy that allows bribery or favoritism. The laws governing
contracts or property rights may be unclear, conflicting, or
incomplete.
“Economic policies—fiscal, monetary, and
tax-related—may be vague or change unpredictably. Accounting
standards may be weak, inconsistent, or irregularly applied.
Together, these five areas create the acronym CLEAR.”
Let’s go back to CPI. In its 2007
regional highlights in the Asia-Pacific region, Transparency
International ranks 32 countries resulting to the CPI clearly
demonstrating that “corruption remains a serious challenge.”
TI reported that “out of the 32 countries
ranked, 22 register scores below 5 indicating that most of the
countries in the region face serious perceived levels of domestic
corruption.”
In the regional level, the Philippines is ranked
as number 22 out of 32 countries with a CPI score of 2.5.
Internationally, it is ranked 131 out of 179 countries surveyed.
While some of you may have resigned from this
issue in government, wait until we’ve broaden this by examining
the level of corruption in business. Yes, we must include
those in the private sector as well.
I mean, let’s find answer to one intriguing
question: Why do some private companies continue to favor some
suppliers even if they’re not competent to serve as its
outsour-cing partners? Look at your own operations and
you’ll find value to this question.
Meanwhile, back in the line, there’s a growing
impatience among those of us who just want transparency in
governance in both business and our government so that the needed
revenue will go to where it was intended.
You know what I mean. I myself developed
the habit of asking this question many times in the past wherever I
was—be in some filthy government offices or in swanky private
executive suites.
I must stay awake to write phenomenal and
irreverent stories against corruption. But here’s the last
point, at least for this piece. I’m now beginning to suspect
that there are some big companies out there that are also big with
corruption stories. You can imagine there’s no difference
with what’s happening in some government agencies.
You know how sometimes, when you’re really
skeptical about something, but then you finally discover it by
accident. Maybe, it’s about time to consider Opacity Index?
Check it out. But I must tell you pointblank that I’m not
selling it for Price Waterhouse Coopers.
So let me just say—let the buyer be aware.
__
Rey Elbo is a management consultant specializing in human resources
and total quality as a fused specialty. Reader’s feedback
may be sent to kairoshq@infocom.ph.
|
