Global Corruption Index: Which country is rated worst.
The 2009 survey of global corruption carried out by Transparency International, the German-based organization that annually ranks the performance of 180 countries, shows there’s no room for complacency. “At a time when massive stimulus packages, fast-track disbursements of public funds and attempts to secure peace are being implemented around the world,” it says, “it is essential to identify where corruption blocks good governance and accountability, in order to break its corrosive cycle.” Corruption, financial crime, anti-money laundering are the focus of this important survey which puts many developed and emerging countries under the forensic investigation blowtorch.
One country that’s redeemed itself is Australia, which has risen to eighth spot in 2009 from ninth in 2008. It held top spot in 2002, when it was considered the least likely nation in the world to allow corruption. That was before the exposure of dealings by the Australian Wheat Board with the Iraqi Government of Saddam Hussein. Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI) has New Zealand replacing Denmark in top place. The CPI is a composite index that draws on 13 expert and business surveys to measure the perceived levels of public sector corruption in any given country. In the important regional breakdown of the Index, Australia ranked third for the Asia-Pacific, behind New Zealand and Singapore.
Overall, most of the 180 countries still scored under five on a zero-to-ten scale, with zero perceived as highly corrupt and 10 to mean low levels of corruption. The challenge, therefore, remains undeniable. Highest scorers in 2009 were New Zealand at 9.4, Denmark at 9.3, Singapore and Sweden at 9.2, and Switzerland at 9.0. Australia, Canada and Iceland came in at 8.7. Fragile, unstable states that are scarred by war and ongoing conflict rated lowest, with Somalia at 1.1, Afghanistan at 1.3, Myanmar at 1.4, and Sudan at 1.5.
As Transparency International points out, the latest results are of great concern because they show that corruption continues to lurk where opacity rules, where institutions still need strengthening and where governments have not implemented anti-corruption legal frameworks. Even industrialised countries cannot be complacent: the supply of bribery and the facilitation of corruption often involve businesses based in their countries. Financial secrecy jurisdictions, linked to many countries that top the CPI, severely undermine efforts to tackle corruption and recover stolen assets.
Corrupt money, TI says, must not find a safe haven. It is time to put an end to excuses. The OECD’s work in this area is welcome, but there must be more bilateral treaties on information exchange to fully end the secrecy regime. At the same time, companies must cease operating in renegade financial centres. Bribery, cartels and other corrupt practices undermine competition and contribute to massive loss of resources for development in all countries, especially the poorest ones. Between 1990 and 2005, more than 283 private international cartels were exposed that cost consumers around the world an estimated $US300 billion in overcharges.
The Group of 20, it points out, has made strong commitments to ensure that integrity and transparency form the cornerstone of a newfound regulatory structure. As the G20 tackles financial sector and economic reforms, it is critical to address corruption as a substantial threat to a sustainable economic future. The G20 must also remain committed to gaining public support for essential reforms by making institutions such as the Financial Stability Board and decisions about investments in infrastructure, transparent and open to civil society input.
Globally and nationally, it says, institutions of oversight and legal frameworks that are actually enforced, coupled with smarter, more effective regulation, will ensure lower levels of corruption. This will lead to a much-needed increase of trust in public institutions, sustained economic growth and more effective development assistance. Most importantly, it will alleviate the enormous scale of human suffering in the countries that perform most poorly in the Index.
In your business, then, don’t wait until financial fraud or some other malpractice is exposed right under your nose. Call in a team of experienced professionals that can use state-of-the-art technology and sophisticated methods of financial analysis and computer forensics to help you. Not only will they warn of where danger lurks, but they’ll also show you how to eradicate it.
