ARGENTINA: Sliding Down the Corruption Ranking

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Sep 22 1998 (IPS) - Argentina ranks with Ecuador, Venezuela, Honduras and Paraguay as one of the Latin American countries most riddled with corruption, concludes the annual report from the non governmental Transparency International.

The document released here Tuesday, showed complaints of corruption in Argentina’s public administration increased under the leadership of President Carlos Menem, who has been ruling the nation since 1989.

One particularly noisy scandal of the moment involves IBM, the computing transnational, which bribed officials in order to secure a million-dollar contract.

Transparency International was created with the objective of improving transparency in both the public and private sector, thus diminishing the corruption which obstructs the development of these nations and perpetuates poverty amongst the worst off countries.

Over the last three years it has concentrated on getting acceptancr for its ‘corruption scale,’ which measures how different people perceive the issue in different countries, questioning the general public and business people, and the political analysts and risk qualifiers who influence investment decisions.

The research is based on polls carried out by the international survey company Gallup, amongst other pollsters, the Political Risk Services and the World Bank annual report. The final table ranks the world’s nations in ascending order of corruptness.

In 1997, Argentina ranked 41st out of the 52 nations considered. This year the report place Argentina 61st out of 85 countries.

“Given its level of development, Argentina could improve its position on this scale,” said Miguel Sholtz, director of Transparency International, noting the nation had slipped back on the previous year’s position.

Many other Latin American countries rank amongst the less vulnerable to corruption like Chile in 20th position, or Costa Rica 27th. Uruguay 42nd, and Brazil 46th, class as intermediate, only slightly above Mexico at 55th.

And the worst are Argentina at 61st, Ecuador and Venezuela joint 77th, Honduras 80th and Paraguay next to last at 84th.

As in previous years, the tables are led by Denmark, Sweden and Finland. “Not that there is no corruption there, but that these nations are perceived by the business world and citizenry in general as less vulnerable to corruption,” said Sholtz.

Former Argentine public prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, director of the Latin American division of Transparency International, said corruption is the main concern amongst citizens in the region according to a 1997 Gallup poll.

The public were no happier with the situation this year.

In the “Anti-Corruption Manual” published by the group in June, the organisation suggested the need for an alliance against corruption between civil society, business people and international, national and municipal institutions.

According to Transparency, corruption, which is greater in poorer countries, impedes the removal of poverty and diverts resources away from social action.

Argentina’s Gerenciar foundation produced estimates stating corruption here involves figures equal to five percent of the Gross Domestic Product.

The most delicate areas are the public services, government contracts, tax collection, official appointments and local government administrations.

And the most common offenses are abuse of power, the acceptance of gifts or illegal commissions, tax evasion, fraud, bribery and nepotism.