WHAT ARE THE KEY FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE BRIBE-TAKING?
The respondents to the 1999 Transparency International Bribe Payers Index (BPI) shared similar views when it came to the issue of why senior public officials and politicians in many countries take bribes. In many instances, the factors that were said to account for corruption are related to each other. Evidently, many officials in the public sector believe that they not only can secure immunity for themselves against prosecution, but that the chances of their criminal activities being discovered are low. These considerations encourage bribe-taking. The fact that many of even the most senior government officials receive low salaries is widely seen as the prime cause of bribe-taking. 33 % of the respondents thought that corruption had actually increased over the past 5 years. They were asked which factors contributed to this increase. A number of political observers have blamed campaign financing as a major cause of high level corruption. While this has been a recurring problem in establ
