Cost of graft is rising in Mexico

Mexicans are spending more on bribes than they were just a few years ago.

They paid the equivalent of about $2.6 billion in bribes last year, according to the nonprofit group Transparency Mexico. That’s 42% more than two years earlier and an average of more than $24 for each of the country’s 105 million people.

Much of the money went to have garbage collected, parking tickets fixed or to get parking spots from the legions of informal attendants who block spaces, then charge for them.

Corruption in Mexico is rife and the informal economy huge. If a driver is stopped for a traffic infraction, it’s often cheaper and easier to pull out a wallet than face all the paperwork involved in paying the fine at a police station.

Bribes are paid for a wide range of activities, Transparency Mexico found. People shell out to have telephone service installed and loans approved, to prevent illegally parked cars from getting clamped and to sell merchandise on the street without a permit.

The survey showed that an estimated 197 million bribes were paid nationwide last year, a jump from 115 million in 2005. But though people paid more bribes, they spent less on each. The average bribe was about $13, compared with $17 in 2005.

The poll was based on interviews in December with 16,000 people around the country. It has a margin of error of less than 1 percentage point.