CAIRO - More than eight in every 10 Egyptians believe corruption is rife and nearly half lack confidence in the government, according to the results of a ministerial survey reported in the press on Wednesday.
Upwards of 87 percent of 2,000 people included in the ministry of administrative development survey said string-pulling and favouritism are widespread, Egypt's main independent daily Al-Masri al-Yom reported.
It said 89.7 percent of those asked said it was not possible to sort out administrative matters without pulling strings.
More than 42 percent said they had used influence in their dealings with government bodies, while 26.4 percent also admitted to paying a bribe for the same reason.
According to 55 percent of those asked, police stations and tax offices are the most common locations where underhand methods are necessary to get things done.
Nearly half of those surveyed also said they had no confidence in the government, accusing it of favouring big business, ignoring the poor and doing nothing to combat corruption.
Seventy-eight percent of those sampled said government pronouncements contradicted the decisions it took and what actually happened on the ground.
And 75 percent said Egyptian society was dominated by injustice, leading the authors of the study to conclude that most of the population was "frustrated, demoralised, desperate and indignant."
In its 2008 annual report, Transparency International rated Egypt at number 115 of 180 countries on its corruption index -- a slide of 10 places on the previous year.
Egyptians protest at Algeria's Cairo embassy