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Nearly 60% of federal employees have witnessed corruption, says World Bank

More than 13,000 federal government public servants report that they have witnessed some unethical or corrupt act during their trajectory in the public sector.

The number was revealed by the survey “Ethics and Corruption in the Federal Public Service – The perspective of civil servants” by the World Bank, released this Thursday (11).

“Most of the civil servants (58.7%) indicate that they have already witnessed some act of this type during their professional trajectory”, says the document.

When the period is broken down to the last three years, 33.4% of servers indicate that they witnessed some unethical act. Of this total, only 12% reported acts of corruption in the same period.

“Of those who indicated having witnessed some unethical practice in this period, most indicate having observed unethical behavior in the formulation of policies, projects or programs (37.7%) or purchases and contracting of services or works (35.3%)”, reveals.

According to the international institution, all public servants were included in the sample, a total of 22,130 respondents. Of those, a third say they have been pressured to act unethically in the past three years.

“Of the civil servants who reported having suffered some kind of pressure, more than half (62.5%) were pressured to make the organization’s rules and procedures more flexible or ignore an improper act (39.9%)”, he completes.

Such pressures were mostly exerted by a hierarchical superior, but there is also a case of pressure by co-workers.

Pressure reports

– 62.53% suffered pressure to make rules and procedures more flexible;

– 39.89% to ignore an improper act;

– 26.59% to favor specific individual;

– 13.39% to share restricted data;

– 6.86% to harm specific particular;

– 28.33% suffered another type of pressure;

Complaint and retaliation

The survey also reveals that 51.7% of responding public servants do not feel safe enough to report illegal conduct. Among those who reported it (12% of the 33.4% who witnessed corruption in the last three years), 27.4% suffered retaliation for reporting irregular behavior. Only 7.8% of respondents indicated that, when reported, the accused was punished.

For the World Bank, the results may be related to the lack of greater capacity in an integrity program. “Having access to integrity programs is related to a lesser feeling of insecurity, being an important tool for creating an anti-corruption culture.”

Only 31.3% of employees reported having been trained in the integrity program in their organization. According to the BM, this indicates a “possible gap between knowing the existence and receiving training in such programs”.

The study was carried out online between April 28 and May 28, 2021, in partnership with the General Comptroller of
Union (CGU), the Ministry of Economy, and the National School of Public Administration (ENAP).

covid-19 increases corruption

When analyzing the impact of the pandemic on unethical practices, the survey indicates that the situation worsened in the period. See the highlights:

– 55.9% saw increased political interference in their organization’s decisions;

– 50.6% observed an increase in conflicts of interest between public and private services;

– 22.4% reported that hiring and purchasing decisions made with little transparency and accountability increased;

– 22.2% saw an increase in lobbying activities between the public and private sectors (22.2%).

Reference: CNN Brasil

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