About one in 10 people around the world had to pay a bribe in the past year and reported bribery has increased in some regions, such as Asia-Pacific and South East Europe. Bribery is particularly widespread in dealings with with the police, the judiciary and registry and permit services, according Transparency International's Global Corruption Barometer 2007.

According to the study, most people believe political parties, parliament, the police and the judicial and legal systems are the most corrupt institutions in their societies and half of those interviewed expect expect corruption to increase in the next three years. Significantly, many more people believe that than they did four years ago. The most pessimistic countries are India, Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, Netherlands and the United Kingdom, where more than 70 percent of the respondents expect the level of corruption to increase in the coming three years.

Countries most affected by bribery are Albania, Cambodia, Cameroon, FYR Macedonia, Kosovo, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania and Senegal. And what's the one public institution that's most prone to kickbacks? The police.