Among public official offenses, accepting bribes has a substantial impact as it undermines the confidence of the general population in the fairness of official duties, eventually leading to a decline in their law-abiding attitude. This type of offense difficult to detect by its nature, as, in most cases, it is committed in secret between the parties concerned. It would therefore be inappropriate to estimate trends from single-year statistics. In this light, Fig. IV-25 shows the number of public officials cleared by the police for accepting bribes in the last ten years(including those deemed to be engaged in public duties under laws and regulation), by type of public official. For comparison, data are shown separately for the first five years from1990to1994(referred to as"the first half-decade"for the purpose of this section)and for the latter five years from1995to1999(referred to as"the second half-decade"for the purpose of this section).
  Persons cleared by the police numbered368in the first half-decade and394persons in the second half-decade(up by26from the first half). Local public officials committed the majority of the offenses in both the first and second half-decades, followed by members of local assemblies(including presiding officers, for the purpose of this section)and national public officials. In1999,65public officials were cleared(82in the previous year), including32local public officials(29),18members of local assemblies(44),1national public officials(4),2officials of public corporations(1), and12other public officials(4).

Fig. IV-25 Number of Persons Cleared for Accepting Bribes, by Type of Public Official(1990-1994,1995-1999)

  Fig. IV-13 shows the number of public officials convicted by first instance courts for accepting bribes in the five-year period from1994to1998,by term of sentence. Of the public officials sentenced to imprisonment with labor in1998,89.4%(84persons)were sentenced to imprisonment of one year or more. The suspended sentence rate stood at88.3%in1998,up4.2points from the previous year.

Fig. IV-13 Sentences in First Instances for Accepting Bribery Cases(1994-1999)

  In 1998,11public officials were sentenced to imprisonment with labor for limited terms without suspension of execution, including3persons for three years,6for two years or more but less than three years, and2for one year or more but less than two years(source:Annual Report of Judicial Statistics).