I ran across an interesting blog posting by our friend Sean Mattson, the San Antonio Express-News correspondent in Monterrey. For those who may not remember, Sean was a big help in providing information and follow up on the truck explosion in Monclova last year.
The article concerns a recent report issued by Transparency Mexico, dedicated to opening the shadows of government to the population.
The article concerns a report compiled by the agency about Bribery or the “merdida” in Mexico and what it costs families each year.
Sean offers this on his blog.
With its lead headline today, Milenio Monterrey newspaper focused new attention on an age-old Mexico problem: bribery.
Just how many bribes are paid out per year in Mexico? 115 million, according to a study released in August 2006 by Transparency Mexico, a nonprofit organization that is Mexico’s chapter of Transparency International.
According to TM, the bribes cost 177 pesos per family per year, totaling a whopping 1.9 billion pesos (about $175 million) annually.
The study took into account 35 services or procedures that should be cost-free.
Many payouts are probably not considered bribery by those who make the payment.
“Tipping” the garbage collectors or mail deliverer is a normal practice — even considered a gesture of goodwill toward those all-weather, low-paid workers. (Of course, there are times when mail delivery or garbage collection stops flowing when the tips go dry … )
Paying a kid on the street for parking your car along a section of curb that he appropriated happens as long as the authority allows it. (You wouldn’t want your mirrors or hub caps stolen.) Bribing (or being extorted by) a traffic cop is just the way it is often done. Slipping some extra cash to the person at the public documents window might save a return trip for that copy of the birth certificate that just about every trámite seems to require.
Not surprisingly, bribes related to traffic violations have the highest index — more than half the time a bribe is paid out, according to the report.
The report, in Spanish, is AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD HERE for those who are interested.
$177 pesos per year per family or about $17.00. Not a bad price to pay to grease the skids.
And not surprisingly in all the states listed, the “merdida” is paid for traffic offenses to the “Transito” cops.
Hey, things work down here and who are we to criticize when all you need to do is look at Federal and State governments to see massive and quasi-legal corruption.
All together now chillun’s! Can we say P O L I T I C A L A C T I O N C O M M I T E E S (PAC) or EARMARK SPENDING ! ! !
This kind of takes the air out of the arguments continually made by the likes of Dale Sommers, the “Trucking Bozo”, who claims that Mexico is notoriously corrupt and the cost of the corruption is what keeps Mexican families poor. He might be surprised if he could see the Real Mexico!
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