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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | May 2006 
Survey: Bribes Still a Way of Life in Mexico
 Karen Mahabir - Associated Press
| | Survey respondents paid bribes 10 percent of time when they asked for public services last year. |
Mexico City – Bribing government officials for services from trash pickup to hearing court cases remains a way of life for Mexicans, according to a survey.
Survey respondents paid bribes 10 percent of time when they asked for public services last year, roughly the same as in 2001, the Mexican chapter of Transparency International said in a biannual report Tuesday.
The group conducted interviews at 15,123 homes across Mexico. It said the margin of error for the survey was about 1 percentage point.
According to the survey, Mexicans paid more bribes in 2005 to avoid having their cars impounded – paying 60 percent of the time, up from 57 percent in 2001. They also paid more often to work or sell goods on the street or sidewalks, paying 23 percent of the time, as opposed to 19 percent in 2001.
Bribes dropped during the same period for trash pickup – from 27 percent of the time to 23 percent– and obtaining or faster delivery of birth, marriage or divorce documents – from 10 percent to 7 percent.
President Vicente Fox pledged to reduce public corruption when he took office in 2000, ending 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
But the survey suggests little has changed.
“Mexico is stuck,” said Eduardo Bohorquez, director of the agency's national chapter. “This administration just started an open and clean fight against corruption ... but the challenge is still there and needs to be addressed with more tools and knowledge.”
The Berlin-based Transparency International is a non-governmental organization dedicated to fighting corruption, with 90 local chapters worldwide. |
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