The
annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI), published by anti-corruption group Transparency
International (TI), puts Bangladesh, Nigeria and Haiti at the bottom of the 133-country
list.
At the top of the list - which measures the perception of corruption among both
locals and expatriates - countries such as Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and New
Zealand remain the cleanest places to do business.
TI chairman Peter Eigen told BBC News Online that the failure to improve among
the lowest ranked was "disappointing".
 |
US
DROPS DOWN LIST
2003: ranked 18th with score of 7.5
2002: ranked 16th with score of 7.7
Score of 10 indicates highly clean, score of 0 indicates highly corrupt |
He was
also disappointed to see that perceptions of countries including the US, Israel,
Luxembourg and even Canada had deteriorated over the past year.
The UK was ranked 11th equal. Its score, 8.7, was unchanged from 2002.
Coalition
The
CPI scores countries out of 10, with higher scores indicating a cleaner image.
More
than 70% of the countries listed - and 90% of developing countries - had a score
lower than five, Dr Eigen said.
Corruption
was "pervasive" in Bangladesh, Nigeria, Haiti, Panama, Burma, Tajikistan, Georgia,
Cameroon, Azerbaijan, Angola, Kenya and Indonesia, TI said.
Despite the disappointment of continuing corruption, Dr Eigen said the CPI was
achieving the aim of raising awareness about the problem.
"People now understand
how prevalent - and how damaging - it is," he said. "We have built a massive global
coalition."
Security
threat
The coalition's effects, he said, could be seen in the campaigns to force companies
in oil and mining to publish the money they pay governments for licences, to stop
the money being stolen by government and business elites.
TI, he said, was careful not to get too much into the ethics of corruption, preferring
to concentrate on the practical aspects.
|
LOWEST
RANKED
113: DR Congo, Ecuador, Iraq, Sierra Leone, Uganda
118: Cote d'Ivoire, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Papua New Guinea
122: Indonesia, Kenya
124: Angola, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Georgia, Tajikistan
129: Burma, Paraguay
131: Haiti
132: Nigeria
133: Bangladesh
(Ranking on the Corruption Perception Index 2003 out of 133 countries) |
On the
one hand it damages economic development and keeps people poor, he said, as many
of the poorest countries remain corrupt with little help from outside to reform.
And that presents a direct threat to the security of richer countries - in whose
interest it is to alleviate poverty and stamp out corruption.
"Millions are left
in misery and poverty, and that provides the breeding ground for hopelessness
and for planting the seeds of terrorism," he said.
"Fighting
corruption is also fighting terrorism. As (former Czech President) Vaclav Havel
said in October 2001, without corruption the attacks of 9/11 could not have taken
place."
'Out
with the old'
Among the "pervasive" cases is Kenya, which is at 122 on the list of 133.
The new government of President Mwai Kibaki, which came to power in December last
year after two decades of one-party rule, has promised to take action against
the nation's dismal reputation for corruption - and has placed the head of TI's
Kenya chapter, John Githongo, in charge of the cleanup.
Dr Eigen said the stubbornly low position was normal in countries which had made
a point of trying to improve their act, such as Argentina, which occupies position
92.
"Things
have to get worse before they get better," he said.
|
FOR
BETTER OR WORSE
Getting better:
Austria, Belgium, Colombia, France, Germany, Ireland, Malaysia, Norway, Tunisia
Getting worse:
Argentina, Belarus, Chile, Canada, Israel, Luxembourg, Poland, US, Zimbabwe |
Kenya's
efforts, however, have returned it to the good books of organisations such as
the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
But these powerful bodies need to offer more support in the fight against corruption,
Dr Eigen said.
"The
president (of the Bank), James Wolfensohn, is our hero," said Dr Eigen. "But the
rest of the Bank is turning round only slowly.
"The
same is true of huge multinational corporations who for decades have systematically
condoned corruption to get contracts.
"Even if their bosses are on board, it takes a long time for people on the ground
to realise their old, corrupt ways of dealmaking are obsolete."
