THE National Integrity Perception Survey 2007 was conducted in August and September last year, and, according to Transparency International Malaysia president Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam, is probably the first in the world to do this kind of survey nationwide.

The survey involved 14,967 respondents. Of this, 67 per cent were householders, 26.9 per cent public servants, and 6.1 per cent were people from economic institutions.

This percentage breakdown is representative of the actual Malaysian population who are in these three respective categories, says Integrity Institute of Malaysia president Datuk Dr Mohd Tap Salleh.

Its five objectives are the same as that of the National Integrity Plan, which is in its first phase (2004-2008).

The survey will be conducted over two months every year, and is meant as a gauge how Malaysians understand and perceive corruption and integrity to be in this country.

A collaboration between the Integrity Institute of Malaysia and the Statistics Department, the survey is the first survey, and its report was just recently made public.

The survey for 2008 will be conducted from the middle of this month until mid-September.