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POLITICS: Watchdog Group Ranks Cleanest and Dirtiest Gov’ts

Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Oct 8 2003 (IPS) - Corruption is not only rampant in developing nations but in many rich nations as well, says a watchdog group that monitors corruption among civil servants and politicians across the globe.

The Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) said Tuesday in its annual Corruption Perceptions Index for 2003, which charts levels of corruption in 133 countries, that seven out of every 10 countries score less than five out of a clean score of 10.

The report also found that half of developing countries score less than three out of 10.

"Today’s CPI demonstrates that it is not only poor countries where corruption thrives," said Laurence Cockcroft, chairman of Transparency International in Britain, in a statement.

"Levels of corruption are worryingly high in European countries such as Greece and Italy, and in potentially rich oil-rich countries such as Nigeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Libya, Venezuela and Iraq," Cockcroft said.

Corruption levels increased in Argentina, Belarus, Chile, Canada, Israel, Luxembourg, Poland, the United States and Zimbabwe, says the report.

"The new CPI points to high levels of corruption in many rich countries as well as poorer ones," said TI chairman Peter Eigen.

The report named Bangladesh, Nigeria, Haiti, Paraguay, Myanmar, Tajikistan, Georgia, Cameroon, Azerbaijan, Angola, Kenya and Indonesia as countries where corruption is perceived to be pervasive. These scored less than two in the new index.

Nations that scored above nine are considered to be less corrupt. These are Finland, Iceland, Denmark, New Zealand, Singapore and Sweden.

The report noted that improvements since last year’s index were recorded in Austria, Belgium, Colombia, France, Germany, Ireland, Malaysia, Norway, and Tunisia.

TI officials started a campaign that targets oil-producing countries in a bid to help ordinary people share in the oil wealth of their country. The watchdog organisation, along with other civil society groups, is calling on international oil companies to disclose what they pay to governments and state oil companies in poor nations.

"This will enable citizens and civil society organisations in countries such as Nigeria, Angola, Iraq, Indonesia and Kazakhstan to have a clearer picture of state revenues," said Cockcroft.

Cockcroft said this would allow citizens to "call their governments to account where the state budget is not used to improve scarce public resources, but instead disappears on expensive vanity projects or into the secret offshore bank accounts of politicians and public officials."

The group also urged developed nations to crack down on the long-time practice of bribing officials in poor nations to win contracts and favours for foreign businesses.

Eigen said that private businesses should fulfill their obligations under the Anti-Bribery Convention, namely to stop bribing public officials around the world.

Under the push for more reliance on private investors, spearheaded by rich nations and marketed by the international financial institutions, private sector companies have come to play a major role in many costly projects, especially in energy, telecommunications, airports, rail and water and sanitation.

But few governments have publicly disclosed the terms and conditions under which service providers operate.

While acknowledging that the move towards privatisation does present the possibility of having lucrative companies taken over by cronies or relatives of those in government, for example, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund say that the private sector generally faces stronger incentives to minimise costs and reduce leakages in the form of bribes.

But Transparency International in its report urged donor countries and international financial organisations to take "a firmer line" against corruption in poor nations by slashing financial aid to corrupt governments and punishing companies that pay bribes.

For developing nations to get out of the web of graft, their governments, too, must implement results-oriented programs to fight corruption.

"For less developed countries, it is in their own interests to introduce transparency measures in public procurement because the waste of their own scarce resources is at stake. If corruption in procurement is not contained, poverty will grow," Eigen said..

"But they also urgently require practical help tailored to the needs of their national anti-corruption strategies," the TI chairman added. "Rich countries must provide practical support to developing country governments that demonstrate the political will to curb corruption."

TI Vice Chair Rosa Ines Ospina Robledo said in a statement that transparency in public contracting is essential to build solid foundations for removing corruption from government and public services.

"In particular, the private sector must take full responsibility for its conduct at home and abroad, and take urgent steps to stop paying bribes," Robledo said.

The TI index reflects the perceptions of business people, academics and risk analysts from different countries around the world.