201Making the Change in MyanmarA practical workshop on how businesses can

combat corruptionWednesday 16 March 6, 9.00am – 4.30pm Summit Parkview Hotel, Yangon, Myanmar

 

Corruption in Myanmar - What do the surveys say? Vicky Bowman, Director, Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business

ASEAN-CSR Network/MCRBTraining Workshop on Anti-Corruption16 March 2016, Yangon

Rank Country/Territory 2015 Score 2014 Score

2013 Score

2012 Score

146 Congo Republic 23 23 22 26147 Chad 22 22 19 19147 Democratic

Republic of Congo 22 22 22 21

147 Myanmar 22 21 21 15150 Burundi 21 20 21 19150 Cambodia 21 21 20 22150 Zimbabwe 21 21 21 20

2015 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions IndexMyanmar ranks 147 out of 168 countries in terms of how corrupt the public sector is seen to be. Scores are on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

Source: http://www.transparency.org/research/cpi

Indicator Myanmar E.Asia/ Pacific

All Countries

Bribery incidence (percent of firms experiencing at least one bribe payment request)

42.9 38.9 17.2Bribery depth (% of public transactions where a gift or informal payment was requested)

35.4 31.2 13.4Percent of firms expected to give gifts in meetings with tax officials 37.1 29.8 12.6Percent of firms expected to give gifts to secure government contract

32.5 32.5 26.1Value of gift expected to secure a government contract (% of contract value)

1.0 1.2 1.5Percent of firms expected to give gifts to get an operating license 38.9 39.1 14.8Percent of firms expected to give gifts to get an import license 53.5 41.6 13.9Percent of firms expected to give gifts to get a construction permit 46.5 48.9 22.3Percent of firms expected to give gifts to get an electrical connection

55.8 35.6 16.5Percent of firms expected to give gifts to get a water connection 30.1 32.4 16.3Percent of firms expected to give gifts to public officials "to get things done"

26.8 32.0 18.0Percent of firms identifying corruption as a major constraint 9.3 18.3 33Percent of firms identifying the courts system as a major constraint 9.2 7.7 14.9

2014 World Bank Enterprise Survey (Corruption Indicators)

Source: www.enterprisesurveys.org/data/exploreeconomies/2014/myanmar

More companies identified corruption as a “very severe obstacle” than any other constraint (2014 UNESCAP Business Survey).

The percentage of companies who see the constraint as a very severe obstacle

OECD-UNESCAP-UMFCCI Business Survey 2014

Pricing Corruption (UNESCAP Survey)

The 2014 UNESCAP Business Survey asked Myanmar companies about their encounters with bribery:

Source: OECD-UNESCAP-UMFCCI Business Survey 2014

Pricing Corruption (UNESCAP Survey)

The UNESCAP data was used to perform an econometric analysis of corruption in Myanmar, with the following findings:

• Firms with higher ‘ability to pay’ (based on sales revenue and employee growth) are more likely to pay bribes.

• Firms with lower ‘refusal power’ (i.e needing bureaucratic permissions to export and import) are more likely to find corruption to be an obstacle.

• However, there is no evidence that bribes act as ‘efficiency grease’ by allowing firms to circumvent red tape. In fact, firms that pay bribes report greater bureaucratic hassle compared to firms that do not.

• Small firms are 5% more likely to pay bribes compared to Micro firms, while Medium firms are 14% more likely to pay bribes.

• Firms in the Extractive industries are almost 20% more likely to pay bribes compared to firms in Agriculture, while firms in wholesale and retail trade are 9% less likely to pay bribes.

MCRB’s annual Pwint Thit Sa report compares the websites of 100 Myanmar companies to score them on what they reveal about their corporate governance and business practices.

Anti-Corruption Programs in Myanmar companies

Top 12 scores (out of 3.5 points) on Anti-Corruption Programming (ACP)

Source: MCRB Pwint Thit Sa / TiME 2015

TiME/Pwint Thit Sa Next steps Mini Pwint Thit Sa

Inviting medium-sized enterprises to volunteer to have their website benchmarked against the 35 questions.

3rd Pwint Thit Sa report (to be published in July 2016)

MCRB will repeat workshops with companies on good practice: Anti-corruption programmes (16

March) Human rights policies Reporting Grievance mechanisms

MCRB publications and translations

www.mcrb.org.mmmyanmar.responsible.business