International NGO publishes global corruption list

(CNS): With Denmark listed as the least corrupt nation in the world and Somalia the worst, there are few surprises about the rankings for this year’s corruption index published by Transparency International (TI), the global watchdog that monitors the world’s corruption levels, but the poor scores of more than two thirds of the world’s governments is of major concern it said. The NGO says it is clear that corruption is a major threat facing humanity as it translates into human suffering, the extortion of poor families for bribes to see doctors or access clean drinking water, and the derailment of building essential infrastructure while corrupt leaders skim funds.

“Governments need to integrate anti-corruption actions into all aspects of decision-making,” TI stated in this year’s report released on Wednesday. “They must prioritise better rules on lobbying and political financing, make public spending and contracting more transparent, and make publicbodies more accountable. After a year with a global focus on corruption, we expected more governments to take a tougher stance against the abuse of power. The Corruption Perceptions Index results demonstrate that there are still many societies and governments that need to give a much higher priority to this issue.”

The index goes from 0, which indicates a country is perceived as highly corrupt, to 100, meaning it is perceived as very clean. Somalia, Korea and Afghinstan scored only 8 points, making them the most corrupt places in the world, while Denmark was joined by Finland and New Zealand, which also scored 90 points.

The Cayman Islands is not listed on the index as it is an overseas territory but the UK was ranked at number 17 with a score of 74 and considered one of the least corrupt countries in the world. Meanwhile, the US came in at 19th place out of 176 countries with 73 points.

Here in the Caribbean TI found that Barbados has the lowest perceived level of corruption, and ranked Barbados at 15th in the world, higher than both the UK and the US, and an improvement on its 16th place in last year’s list.

The Bahamas was the next-highest-rated country from the region, coming in at 22nd, tied with St Lucia and France. Haiti, not surprisingly, had the highest level of perceived corruption in the public sector, ranking 165th in the world and very close to the bottom.

However Jamaica made a minor improvement, sharing the 83rd spot with four other countries near the middle of the table with a score of 38 points. That was the island nation’s best ranking in five years — last year it was 87th in 2010, 99th in 2009 and 96th in 2008.

See full details of the Corruption Perceptions Index 2012 here.