Global Policy Forum

By Barbara Fraser

Most Peruvians consider minor graft just part of the paperwork.

The hordes of minivans that transport Lima's 8 million residents around the city are notorious for traffic infractions. So it was not surprising when a police officer pulled over a van during a recent morning rush hour. Passengers chuckled when they heard the jingle of change as the driver gathered up his driver's license and registration to show the officer. A few minutes later, the van was on its way.

The Interior Department's new anti-bribe ad campaign — "the police are to be respected" — notwithstanding, for Peru's bus drivers business as usual involves "settling" minor infractions on the street corner instead of actually getting a ticket. And while 63 percent of Peruvians identify corruption as a major problem, in third place after the economic crisis and lack of jobs, 70 percent either approve of or tolerate such acts as cheating on taxes, copying exams or shoplifting, according to a recent national corruption survey.

Peru made its mark on the corruption charts in late 2000, when the government of then-President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) collapsed after secret videos were leaked that showed his national security adviser, Vladimiro Montesinos, shelling out wads of cash to politicians, media moguls and businessmen (LP, Jan. 29, 2001). As investigations have dragged on, however, and the government President Alejandro Toledo has embroiled itself in nepotism and influence-peddling scandals, some Peruvians are wondering if anything has changed.

"Peru has gone from having extensive corruption in public administration to having systemic corruption. It's a structural problem," said José Ugaz, who headed the first probe into the Fujimori administration's financial shenanigans.

The survey, which was commissioned by Proética, a non-governmental anti-corruption organization founded by Ugaz, did not measure large-scale government corruption. "The objective was to look at ordinary citizens' attitudes toward corruption," Ugaz said.

The results are as contradictory as human nature. While half of the respondents said they considered Peru a corrupt country, only about 30 percent said they considered corruption a problem in their own locality. The lowest figures were in the jungle — probably because there is little central government presence there, Ugaz said.

When asked which of a series of institutions were the most corrupt, the judiciary was named by 73 percent of the respondent, the police by 66 percent and the government by 14 percent. Paradoxically, 55 percent said the government should be responsible for fighting corruption, while 48 percent cited the police and 36 percent the judiciary. Only 7 percent said the family should combat corruption.

"Not only do we not want to get involved, we give responsibility for the fight to institutions that are perceived as corrupt," Ugaz said. "We're caught in a vicious circle."

Of the 5,122 people interviewed for the survey by the Apoyo polling company, 57 percent said they thought the word "coima" —slang for the money that changes hands to avoid a traffic ticket or speed up paperwork — had no negative connotation, and 33 percent defined it as "giving someone money in exchange for a service or favor." Nationwide, 32 percent of respondents who had done some process involving government paperwork said they had paid a coima.

According to the survey, the national average per bribe is 64 soles — about US$18. The usual "rates," according to respondents, range from about $6 to get merchandise past customs agents or speed up installation of water service, to $15 to get obtain a building permit, driver's license or passport, or be allowed to work as a street vendor. Seeing a hospital patient outside regular visiting hours can usually be arranged for about $0.50.

The study also yielded a profile of the person most likely to pay a coima — a man between ages 18 and 39 with at least some higher education. "There's a serious contradiction between the educational system and the result," Ugaz said.

Meanwhile, corruption cases are still making their way through congressional investigations or the courts. A total of 1,247 people have been indicted on corruption or human rights charges related to the Fujimori government, although only 20 have been sentenced.

Estimates of the money from bribes and kickbacks that was stashed away by Montesinos, Fujimori and their cronies range as high as $2 billion. Only about $340 million has actually been located, however. About $140 million has been repatriated and another $200 million is in blocked accounts. So far, the money trail has not led to Fujimori, who fled after the scandal broke (LP, Nov. 27, 2000).

According to Special Prosecutor Luis Vargas Valdivia, investigators believe that Fujimori and his relatives spirited illegal gains out of the country as cash or gold bars and deposited them in Asian banks, making them difficult to trace.

While the survey studied small-scale graft, it is difficult to separate the strands of corruption in Peru. One conclusion of a Proética evaluation of the anti-corruption campaign in the two years since the fall of the Fujimori government concluded that greater transparency in public administration, as well as a merit-based civil service system, are needed to combat large-scale corruption. Such measures could also reduce everyday bribery. Some changes have already been made, while other reforms are before Congress.

Psychologist Roberto Lerner believes the problem is also rooted in social patterns in which people feel responsible for themselves and those close to them, but not for a larger community. "There's no concept of a common good — our country is made up of ‘me' and ‘you,'" he said. "Until there's an ‘us,' a true sense of common welfare, the coima will be continue to be accepted."

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