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Majority of Ticos Fear
Corruption to Increase in the
Next Three Years
According to Transparencia
Internacional (TI), 55% of Costa
Rican fear that corruption will
increase during the next three
years, while only 15% expect a
reduction in corruption. TI says
that politicians, customs agents
and tax collectors are the worst
qualified and are thought to be
the most corrupt.
The TI information reveals that
79% of Costa Ricans believe that
corruption has increased over
the last years.
The bad image is compared to
that of Venezuela, the
Phillipines, the Dominican
Republic, Nigeria and Ecuador.
In contrast, in France and
Finland, the majority of the
population believe that their
private companies are not
corrupt, even though it was
France's Alcatel and Finland's
Instrumentarium Medko, who paid
multi million bribes to the
Instituto Costarricense de
Electricidad (ICE) and the Caja
Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS)
that implicated and saw the
detention of two former
presidents.
Both former presidents, Miguel
Anger Rodríguez (ICE-Alcatel
scandal) and Rafael Angel
Calderón (CCSS-Fischel scandal)
are being investigated for
taking part in the payoffs and
are now under house arrest after
each having served time behind
bars, in preventive detention,
following their arrests.
Roxana Salazar, president of
Transparencia Internacional
Costa Rica, explains that the
population believe that the
"political parties" are the
blame for corruption, though
many Costa Ricans believe that
private business is also
corrupt. "This are worse now,
even though there was optimism
last year", said Salazar.
An investigation by the students
at the Universidad de Costa Rica
(UCR) over political party
financing reveals that the
Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones (TSE)
is quiet in questioning
political party contributions
and donations.
The students investigated the
bank accounts of the Acción
Ciudadana, Liberación Nacional,
Movimiento Libertario, Patria
Primero, Unidad Social Cristiana,
Unión Nacional and the Unión
para el Cambio, based on
information porvided by the TSE.
UCR student Andrea Mora said
that the TSE receives the
information provided by the
political parties but it doesn't
question anything. "They receive
the information, add it to the
internet page and do not to
corroborate if the information
is correct", said Mora.
According to the Transparencia
Internacional, the corruption of
level of is as follows (1 = no
corruption, 5= very corrupt):
Political Parties: 4.6
Legislative Assembly: 4.2
Tax Officials: 4.1
Customs: 4
Police: 3.8
Judicial system and public
services: 3.6
Private sector and doctors: 3.5
Religion: 3.2
Eduction system: 3.1
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