More than 68% surveyed considered it acceptable for a civil servant to top up a low salary by accepting small bribes - up from 42% in 2009, it said.

BBC: Afghanistan bribery cost 'increases sharply'

Henry Tang, the territory's top civil servant, is a possible candidate, as is Leung Chun Ying, the convener of Mr Tsang's cabinet.

ECONOMIST: China gets ready, cautiously, for new leaders

Likened earlier this year by Lord Turnbull, a former cabinet secretary (Britain's top civil servant), to Macavity the cat, who was never to be found at the scene of the crime, the prime minister will find it hard now to evade his own responsibility for what has gone wrong on Mr Darling's brief watch.

ECONOMIST: Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown

Against the advice of the defence ministry's top civil servant, ministers sent the scientist to undergo a grilling by a parliamentary inquiry into the affair, at which he claimed not to recognise the reporter's words as having come from his briefing.

ECONOMIST: Dr Spin quits | The

The departure of Sir Gus O'Donnell, the country's top civil servant, was announced this week: part of a Big Bang restructuring, which shows how anxious the prime minister is to expedite policy delivery.

ECONOMIST: Shuffling mandarins: Goodbye to GOD | The