Source: Jornal O Estado - Fortaleza / CE - GENERAL - 14/05/2010

The price of corruption costs Brazil between R $ 41,5 and R $ 69,1 billion per year. The estimate is from a study released today (13) by the Department of Competitiveness and Technology of the Federation of Industries of São Paulo (Fiesp).

According to the report Corruption: Economic Costs and Combat Proposals, the cost of corruption represents between 1,38% to 2,3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The money, if invested in education, for example, could increase the number of students enrolled in public elementary schools from 34,5 million to 51 million, in addition to improving the living conditions of Brazilians.

“The extremely high cost of corruption in Brazil harms the increase in per capita income, the country's growth and competitiveness, compromises the possibility of offering the population better economic and social well-being conditions and companies with better infrastructure conditions and a more stable business environment ”, says the Fiesp study.

The report also points out that, if the diversion of funds in the country were smaller, the number of beds for hospitalization in public hospitals could rise from 367.397 to 694.409. The misappropriated money could also serve more than 2,9 million families with housing and bring basic sanitation to more than 23,3 million households.

For the infrastructure area, the report calculates that if there were not so much corruption, 277 new airports could be built in the country. The precariousness of the terminals is one of the biggest problems for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The study also reveals, citing information from the non-governmental organization (NGO) Transparency International, that the country managed to reduce corruption, but it was not enough to remove it, in 2009, from 75th place in a ranking of 180 countries.

The Fiesp report proposes, as measures to combat corruption, a political reform that, among other things, establishes transparent rules and procedures for controlling the financing of electoral campaigns; a reform of the judiciary, with measures that reduce the perception of impunity and that punish corruption cases more quickly; an administrative reform that reduces appointments to positions of trust, the bargaining power in the political game and the taking of bribes in state-owned companies; in addition to fiscal and tax reforms, which increase control over public spending and avoid paying bribes. Source: AB