Economist: Better public services can help wipe out corruption

More efficient public goods and services and a more business-friendly environment could help eradicate corruption in the country, an economist said at a recent forum organized by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies. Asian Institute of Management Policy Center executive director and associate professor of economics Dr. Ronald Mendoza based this recommendation on the recent results of the 2009 AIM Enterprise Survey Data. The survey, which covered approximately 1,740 firms in 29 cities, found that more corruption occurs in cities with very poor business environments. Mendoza also said that there are higher opportunities for corruption in areas where public goods and services are inadequate and inefficient. One way to improve the business environment, Mendoza suggested, is to reduce the opportunity for extortion by decreasing the number of steps needed to set up a business. According to Mendoza, the study found that bribery was reported by companies who got their business permits a month late, by those which experienced an hour of power interruption, by those that accessed informal sources of credit, and by firms in cities with high poverty incidence. Mendoza also said that many of the firms affected by corruption are small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which account for approximately 99.6 percent of all registered firms in the country, employ 69.9 percent of the total labor force and generates 32 percent of the national economy. — BM, GMA News