Distrust of Corporate America at All-Time High

The public has developed a mistrust of lobbyists from private corporations trying to influence governments.
Distrust of Corporate America at All-Time High
People protest against corporate bailouts in front of AIG office during the nationwide 'Take Back the Economy' protest in Los Angeles on March 19, 2009. (Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images)
6/16/2009
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/gag85522134.jpg" alt="People protest against corporate bailouts in front of AIG office during the nationwide 'Take Back the Economy' protest in Los Angeles on March 19, 2009. (Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images)" title="People protest against corporate bailouts in front of AIG office during the nationwide 'Take Back the Economy' protest in Los Angeles on March 19, 2009. (Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1827865"/></a>
People protest against corporate bailouts in front of AIG office during the nationwide 'Take Back the Economy' protest in Los Angeles on March 19, 2009. (Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON—Now, more than ever, the general public has developed a mistrust of lobbyists from private corporations trying to influence governments worldwide and attempting to swing the perception of certain laws and regulations.

At the same time, distrust of governments is also at an all-time high, according to a new survey. Many people have become increasingly dismayed and disgruntled by what they perceive as loopholes in laws combating bribery and corruption, according to the “2009 Global Corruption Barometer” survey conducted by Transparency International (TI), a Berlin-based advocacy group.

The survey was conducted in about 70 countries and gathered the thoughts of more than 73,000 people worldwide.

“These results show a public sobered by a financial crisis precipitated by weak regulations and a lack of corporate accountability,” Huguette Labelle, TI chairwoman, said in a June press release. She continues, “But we also see that the public is willing to actively support clean business.”

“What is needed now is bold action by companies to continue strengthening their policies and practices, and to report more transparently on finances and interactions with government.”

Losing Faith in Corporate World and Governments

“Corruption has many faces—accounting fraud, influence peddling, insider trading, and even the role of lobbying and perks-for-favors,” CorpWatch says on its Web site.

Approximately 50 percent of the TI survey respondents—8 percent more than in 2004—are appalled and highly critical of companies locally or foreign-owned.

Respondents agreed that changes to corruptive behavior come slow. Political parties, parliaments, the judiciary, and the media neither improved nor deteriorated concerning dishonest behavior over the past years—it’s still business as usual.

Political parties are the most corrupt, said more than 68 percent of those surveyed, while 63 percent agreed that government employees and public officials would act more expediently, efficiently, and produce a favorable outcome if they received a bribe.

Perception concerning corruptive behavior by firms, political parties, or government officials differs by region and by country.

Political parties reached the top of the corruption scale, according to the respondents, in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, according to TI. American respondents said that the U.S. Legislature tops the list of corruptive entities.

Media Bashing

The media also did not come off well in public opinion. Close to 45 percent don’t see the media as independent entities that keep the public abreast of current events.

Researchers claim in recent publications that the media may try to influence or mislead the public by quoting only specific sources, reporting figures that are accurate in themselves, but only part of the story—for example, only reporting job losses and not job gains during the same period—and refusing to report on true human rights violations in China.

“The first thing that has to be done is to educate the public about the central importance of fighting media bias,” Herb Denenberg said in “The Denenberg Report,” recently published on his blog. Denenberg is an investigative reporter and former adjunct professor at Cabrini College in Philadelphia.

“In my view, the mainstream media is literally destroying the country [U.S.], by coverage that is so biased, dishonest, leftist and fraudulent that the public is getting only one side of the news.”

He continues, “It’s as though those who rely on the mainstream media are blind in one eye, and have vision that blacks out half of the news and half of the world. This is leading to decisions based on incomplete and often erroneous information and that means the decisions are often mistaken and dangerous.”

Greasing the Hands

Paying bribes to get things done is not of great issue in many regions. About 5 percent of TI survey respondents said they paid a bribe in Europe and the United States during the past year. In contrast, people in the Middle East and North Africa reported a rate of 40 percent in the past year.

Former Soviet Union countries (Newly Independent States) were the only regions where greasing the pocket has become more pronounced, with an 11 percent increase between 2005 and 2009. The region includes Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, among others.

Like previous survey results, the latest report shows that “younger people are more likely to pay bribes than older people” and “women are less likely to pay bribes than men.”

The researchers caution that their discovery didn’t prove women are not as dishonest at men, but “women tend to be more risk-averse and are less likely to come into contact with public institutions, such as the police or judiciary, where bribe demands are more likely to occur.”

Going After Corruption

Going After Corruption

The U.S. Justice Department is accelerating its investigation and prosecution of crimes committed by firms, government employees, and individuals. Bribery may continue for years before being discovered, investigated, and convicted.

More than 120 companies are presently under scrutiny by the Justice Department, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report.

In May, the president and the former controller of Telecommunications D’Haiti SAM, a wireless communications company from Haiti, were charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for paying and concealing more than $1 million in bribes. Both face a five-year prison term and a fine.

Novo Nordisk A/S, a Danish firm, was ordered to pay $9 million last month for illegal kickbacks of around $1.4 million paid to the former Iraqi government under the United Nations Oil-for-Food program.

 “The Department has reinvigorated its traditional missions that were too often overlooked in recent years … The Department has embraced its historic role in fighting crime, including violent crimes and the financial crimes that have harmed American consumers and workers,” the Department of Justice said in its “100 Day Progress Report.”