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  • Does your country have a corruption problem?

  • Well, yes, probably.

  • Most countries in the world do.

  • At least according to Transparency International.

  • Its Corruptions Perceptions Index scored 180 countries on a scale of 0 to 100,

  • where 0 means a country's perceived to be highly corrupt and 100 means it's seen as very clean.

  • More than 120, or two-thirds of those countries, scored less than 50,

  • and the average score was 43, definitely a failing grade to most people.

  • But corruption isn't just a moral issue, it's an economic issue.

  • And it's costing the global economy, and you, a lot.

  • It's difficult to place an exact number on the global cost of corruption - but by most estimates, it's in the trillions.

  • That's a lot, more than the entire GDP of most countries.

  • Countries regarded as less corrupt, like New Zealand, Denmark and Singapore,

  • tend to have smaller populations.

  • Most of the countries on the list all have less than 10 million people.

  • Size doesn't guarantee a lack of corruption, some at the bottom of the list are small as well,

  • but they tend to be war-torn countries like Somalia, South Sudan and Syria.

  • But most of the world's most populous countries are pretty far down the list.

  • There's China coming in at 77,

  • India at 81.

  • And it gets worse for emerging but huge economies like Indonesia, Brazil and Russia.

  • Do you have a little money for tea?

  • That's local slang for a bribe in countries like China, India, and Thailand,

  • where tea money is deeply entrenched in society.

  • Last year, a survey estimated that one in four people in Asia Pacific paid bribes

  • to access public services like getting help from the police or getting an identity card.

  • Police officers were the most likely to demand a bribe,

  • and poorer and younger people were more likely to pay it.

  • It may seem trivial, but not when you think about it on a bigger scale.

  • The IMF estimates that the annual cost of bribery is between $1.5 and $2 trillion,

  • about two percent of global GDP. And that's only one type of corruption.

  • Other types of corruption include money laundering, embezzlement and fraud.

  • The Turkish have a saying, a fish rots from the head down, meaning that problems start from the top.

  • And the Panama Papers have given us a glimpse into how much rot has gotten into the system.

  • Encompassing 11.5 million secret files, the Panama Papers is one of the biggest document leaks in history,

  • revealing just how much wealth has been hidden in offshore accounts and tax havens.

  • To be clear, offshore accounts are legal, but the papers brought up

  • fundamental questions about the ethics of tax havens.

  • The papers revealed links to 140 politicians and public officials.

  • Of which, 14 are current and former heads of state.

  • As a result of the revelations the prime ministers of Pakistan and Iceland were forced to resign.

  • The world's second highest paid athlete, Lionel Messi was named and charged for tax evasion,

  • while a suspected billion-dollar money laundering ring was linked

  • to close associates of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

  • The Panama Papers wiped out $174 billion off the market capitalization of nearly 400 companies,

  • making it the largest financial loss following a corporate scandal in history.

  • And it's not just companies.

  • Corruption can cost countries their economies.

  • Brazil was once a high-flying emerging economy, but since 2014, it's been gripped by the Car Wash scandal.

  • Originally a money laundering investigation, it became one of the largest corruption cases in history.

  • At the core of it was state-owned oil firm Petrobras, which accounts for 10% of Brazil's economy.

  • Its officials were allegedly accepting huge bribes in exchange for lucrative government contracts.

  • The case led to prison sentences for top executives,

  • billions of dollars in fines and more than 100,000 people being laid off.

  • Brazil plunged into recession.

  • Its GDP contracted sharply, while unemployment rates hit record highs.

  • Brazil's not the only case.

  • Economists have found that corruption usually hurts a country's economic growth.

  • Why?

  • Corruption can result in fewer investors wanting to put their money in the country.

  • One study found that a one-unit increase in corruption levels

  • can reduce foreign direct investment per capita by about 11%.

  • Corruption can also discourage people from paying taxes,

  • when they perceive that taxes are simply going into corrupt pockets.

  • That means less money for the government, which in turn affects its ability to build

  • infrastructure and public services crucial for economic growth.

  • Even in Europe, corruption can inflate the cost of a public project by 13%.

  • That means lower quality projects despite higher spending.

  • Institutions like the IMF and World Bank have faced tough questions about their lending policies,

  • with critics saying that money sometimes finds itself in the hands of corrupt officials.

  • The World Bank has stepped up, establishing offices to investigate and sanction corruption.

  • This year, it banned 78 firms and individuals from engaging in any new World Bank projects,

  • bringing that number to about 1,000 in total.

  • The IMF and World Bank have made fighting a corruption a key priority.

  • For instance, the IMF unveiled a new policy this year,

  • promising to hold member countries to the same standards, making it a condition for IMF loans.

  • It made good on its promise, only giving Ukraine $2 billion in aid after it

  • put tougher reforms in place, like setting up an anti-corruption court.

  • Many governments have also made strong anti-corruption pledges, although

  • the motives behind corruption crackdowns in places like China and Saudi Arabia have been questioned.

  • Polling shows trust in public institutions and governments is near historic lows,

  • and a lot of that is rooted in corruption.

  • But as citizens protest, multinational organisations demand accountability and officials investigate,

  • tea money may soon be left behind.

  • Hello from Bali. I'm Xin En and if you want to check out more of my videos, click here.

  • Don't forget to subscribe, and see you next time!

Does your country have a corruption problem?

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