Saeed Al-Suraihi

Okaz

The Anti-Corruption Commission’s (ACC) recent survey revealed that 44.9 percent of public sector employees are willing to fight corruption, cooperate with the ACC and even report corrupt practices.



Answering questions on the survey is easier said than done. When push comes to shove, there is no guarantee that those employees will stick to their answers and jeopardize their interests at the expense of reporting corruption. Reporting corruption requires a lot of courage. That is why the results of the survey cannot be considered reliable because the practice on the ground is different.



The ACC is investigating various corruption cases that have been reported by members of the public, not employees. This fact contradicts the results of the survey. Moreover, the volume of corrupt practices in many government agencies and departments does not match the conclusion of the survey that half of government employees are willing to report corruption.



How could half of employees express their willingness to cooperate with the ACC at a time when the agencies they work with are rampantly corrupt? What I am trying to say is that the large volume of corruption would not have existed had there been uncorrupt employees. I think the commission is facing the tall task of combating rampant corruption. I think its mission is going to be very tough, if not impossible.



The above-mentioned survey also showed that 17.6 percent of employees did not report corruption that happened in front of them. I believe those employees are more truthful than the ones who said they would report such cases to the ACC if they spotted them. The commission should rely more on members of the public because they are the ones who will report financial or administrative corruption.