من المهد الى اللحد
From cradle to grave, a Lebanese life in bribes
Here's how we calculated an "average" Lebanese could give up 34,741,510 ل.ل - the equivalent of 8,685 shawarma, one and a half cars, or 1,737 tanks of gas in bribes - in a lifetime.
Key or swipe down to continue.
Birth: 1,406,155ل.ل
The corruption cycle begins at birth. Your parents will bribe for your mother's hospital admission, for your ID papers, and civil registration.
School: 2,077,083ل.ل
As a student, in addition to ID requirements, you'll bribe for your exam results and transcripts.
University: 1,356,747ل.ل
Bribes associated with transport, university fees and grades will add to the cost of your post secondary schooling.
Working Life: 12,510,402ل.ل
When you start your own business, corruption increases the price you pay for legal, business licensing and transport.
Family Life: 15,173,302ل.ل
Government procedures associated with family life - marriage, transport, children and homebuying - will account for most of the bribes you pay in your lifetime.
Retirement: 2,217,821ل.ل
Older age and retirement will necessitate bribing for ID renewals for driving and transport and hospitalisation.
How we broke down bribes, per life stage
The Story
Dealing with corrupt government officials is depressingly commonplace for the average Lebanese, who must bribe to get everyday government services (for example, obtaining a passport) taken care of in a timely fashion, or indeed at all.
Sakker El Dekkene maintains a growing database of bribery data from citizens who report corruption through its app and outreach programmes. Between June 2013 and December 2014, SED received 1,561 bribery reports. We chose procedures with verifiable base costs (e.g. having a car registered) that we also had average bribery data for.
To tell a story of corruption for a fictional, “typical” Lebanese, we selected common life milestones - from raising a child and going through tertiary education, to getting married and entering the labour market - and then added the estimated average cost of bribes most people would unavoidably have to pay at each milestone.
For more information on the story, read the project backgrounder here.