Anti-Corruption Survey: Putting a figure to the perception of corruption |09 October 2017

Around 15,000 households on Mahé, Praslin, La Digue and Ile au Cerf are being targeted in a public opinion survey on the perception of corruption.

This first anti-corruption survey is part of an awareness campaign being launched by the Anti-Corruption Commission Seychelles (ACCS) to formulate a benchmark of the public perception of corruption.

The campaign being introduced in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) officially started on Friday and is expected to end on December 9, 2017 to mark the International Day against Corruption.

The survey which will be distributed through the Seychelles Postal Services (SPS) towards the end of this week was presented to the media by the complaints and communications manager Abison De Giorgio.

Mr De Giorgio was accompanied on the panel by the UNDP programme manager Roland Alcindor, ACCS prevention and education manager Denis Joubert and ACCS prevention and education officer Dorothy Pool.

The aim of the survey is collect a large volume of data and make an analysis on corruption in Seychelles.

It is expected to help ACCS better understand the prevalence of corruption, assess the level of corruption in both the public and private sector.

The survey which requires only the age and gender of the participant comes in English and Creole. It has 10 simple questions and the deadline to have it sent back to any post office is October 25, 2017.

For those who are tech-savvy, an online survey will also be available starting this  week on the Commission’s Facebook.

It is attached to a leaflet which contains information about ACCS mission, vision and functions.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) there are 30,647 households on Mahé, Praslin, La Digue and Ile au Cerf and from the $15,000 granted by UNDP to ACCS for this campaign, at least 50% of the households will be met.

The findings of the survey will be announced on December 7, 2017 through a symposium.

Mr De Giorgio stated that corruption remains one of the most serious matters and problems in many countries and Seychelles is no exception.

“Corruption can prevent an individual as well as a nation from developing economically hence it is very important that we educate ourselves and others. This menace is affecting our livelihood and risk jeopardising the future of our children,” he said.

He said it is for nothing that one person thinks that there might be a lot of corruption and another person might say there is not that much corruption.

“If we continue like this it will just remain an idea in the cloud hence numbers don’t lie and we decided to put the figure to this perception...You cannot start attacking a problem without knowing the source of the problem, where it derives and its prevalence,” he said.

Mr De Giorgio said the causes of corruption can formulate action plans to push forward the fight against corruption in coming years.

The second part of the education awareness programme is geared towards school children where ACCS will be targeting three secondary schools  – Anse Royale, Praslin and La Digue -- to start off with for 2017.

This project is expected to kick off mid-October whereby the pupils will be educated on corruption through talks, leaflets and short competitions.

Mr Joubert said a strategic plan has been drawn up from his department to raise awareness about corruption and its effect on the society.

“If we want to see a change in our future, it starts from the young stage... we have to be careful when talking about corruption because the idea to educate the children is for them not to confuse corruption with other social ills in the society,” he said.

He said the programme will move on to other secondary schools and post secondary schools as from next year.

Mr Joubert stated that there is ongoing dialogue between ACCS and the education department to integrate certain corruption modules in the national curriculum.