A LANDSCAPE ASSESSMENT OF POLITICAL CORRUPTION IN ...

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First of all, Chart 1 above suggests
that all government organizations in
Jamaica are perceived as being corrupt. It
was found that the three agencies
perceived to be the most corrupt in
Jamaica were the Police Force, the Parish
Council Offices and the Customs
Department respectively.
More specifically, it was also
discovered that 81% of the persons
interviewed believed that the Police Force
was either corrupt, very corrupt or
somewhat corrupt; 62% believed that the
Parish Council Offices were either corrupt,
very corrupt or somewhat corrupt and 61%
believed that the Customs Department
were either corrupt, very corrupt or
somewhat corrupt.
Respondents were also asked
the question, ‘How easily can a public
official be corrupted in Jamaica’ Most
respondents (43%) reported that it was
‘easy’ to corrupt a public official in
Jamaica and 42% stated that it was
‘very easily’ compared to 15% who
believed that it was ‘not easy’.
Generally speaking then, more
respondents (85%) believed that it was
relatively easy to corrupt a public
official in Jamaica. This is presented in
Chart 2,
Chart 2: How easy can a public
official be corrupted in Jamaica
Not Easy
(15%)
Relatively Easy
(85%)
We had also attempted to
get a sense of the prevalence of
corruption which the individual
perceives to exist in the public
sector today when compared to
the past. The ‘past’ was left open –
qualitative. This allowed for some
flexibility by not tying individuals to
a particular time or space. What
we were really interested in
knowing was whether they
believed that corruption was
increasing or declining. The
specific question that was asked in
this regard was: “Do you believe
that the Jamaican public sector is
more, or less, corrupt now than it
was in the past – or, is it about the
same”