Favouritism (Wasta), another name for corruption

An overwhelming majority of Jordanians believe that despite government efforts to curb corruption, favouritism (wasta) is still ubiquitous in Jordanian society, according to a study issued recently by the Jordan Transparency Forum (JTF).

The study was conducted through phone and face-to-face interviews with a sample of 900 citizens representing ministries, public institutions, the private sector and the education sector, JTF President Bassem Sakkijha told The Jordan Times on Tuesday.

According to the study, which comes a decade after a similar one conducted by the same organisation in 1999 and revealed in 2000, around 81.3 per cent of the sample agreed that "wasta" is highly prevalent in Jordan, compared to 87 per cent in the previous survey, while 91.3 per cent said they were not aware of a paragraph recently added to the Anti–Corruption Law that considers favouritism a type of corruption and calls for combating it.

In its findings, the study attributed wasta’s commonness in the Kingdom to "backward" administrative behaviour in both public and private institutions, “corruption, tribal influence and the absence of democracy”.

The survey indicated that although it is not widely accepted, many Jordanians resort to using wasta in many situations, such as when applying for a job or obtaining needed documents from a public or private institution, Sakkijha explained.

"A vast majority of the randomly surveyed individuals agreed on the importance of addressing wasta, but said sometimes it is necessary, considering widespread practices in the private and the public sectors," said the study, which was prepared to coincide with International Anti-Corruption Day on December 9.

Moreover, 87 per cent of those surveyed said they believe that wasta will continue to exist in the future, despite government measures, compared to 93.04 per cent who said the same in the previous study.