Amount of global corruption growing, claims index

A global index of corruption in 176 countries says that public perception of abuses is leading to the rise of populist leaders who claim they will challenge the system but then turn out to be worse than their predecessors.

Relocate Editorial

25 January 2017

Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2016 – which ranks nations on a scale of between 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean) – says that more than two-thirds of countries have a serious corruption problem, scoring below 50, with more having declined in the rankings compared to this time last year.Denmark and New Zealand, each with a score of 90, are judged to be the world's least corrupt nations, with the UK retaining its position in the top 10 of the cleanest countries with a score of 81. Somalia, South Sudan and North Korea are at the bottom of the list.The US comes in with a score of 74, but Transparency International researcher, Finn Heinrich, said there were worrying signs of populism following President Donald Trump's victory. "What we see particularly in the United States are the first signs of a person coming on board on a 'drain the swamp' agenda [but] betraying that agenda already with the nepotism and the appointments....with putting people in his cabinet who have conflicts of interests on various levels," he said."Obviously, it is too early to tell, but if you look at other populist leaders – the track record of them doing what they promised is dismal."

Populist politicians promise change

The report says that the increasing perception of corruption in public services is boosting the fortunes of populist politicians promising change. “However, this is likely to only exacerbate the issue,” said José Ugaz, chairman of Transparency International. “In countries with populist or autocratic leaders, we often see democracies in decline and a disturbing pattern of attempts to crack down on civil society, limit press freedom and weaken the independence of the judiciary. Instead of tackling crony capitalism, those leaders usually install even worse forms of corrupt systems.”Mr Ugaz pointed to the fact that Hungary and Turkey had fallen with the rise of autocratic leaders. This contrasted, he said, with improvement in Argentina’s ranking since it replaced the populist government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in 2015.“Collusion between businesses and politicians denies national economies billions of dollars of revenues that are siphoned off to benefit the few at the expense of the many,” added Mr Ugaz. “As the Panama Papers showed, it is still far too easy for the rich and powerful to exploit the opaqueness of the global financial system to enrich themselves at the expense of the public good.“Corruption and inequality feed off each other, creating a vicious circle between corruption, unequal distribution of power in society, and unequal distribution of wealth. In too many countries, people are deprived of their most basic needs and go to bed hungry every night because of corruption, while the powerful and corrupt enjoy lavish lifestyles with impunity.”

Looking at corruption from the wrong end of the telescope

However, Alex Cobham, chief executive of the Tax Justice Network, criticised the index for distorting the landscape of global corruption. He told the Guardian, “One of the main drivers of global corruption is now cross-border corruption predicated on the basis of financial secrecy, and what you now see is that – whether it be the stripping of assets or shifting of profits across borders – the countries that are largely responsible for driving this, such as Singapore or Switzerland, are the ones always ranked very highly in the index.“The index is largely based on the assessments of a small group of international elites who still tend to link corruption to poverty, but I think this gives the perception of corruption from the wrong end of the telescope.”

TOP 10

1. New Zealand, Denmark 90
3. Finland 89
4. Sweden 88
5. Switzerland 86
6. Norway 85
7. Singapore 84
8. Netherlands 83
9. Canada 82
10. UK, Germany, Luxembourg 81

OTHER SCORES

18. United States 74
20. Japan 72
23. France 69
57. Hungary 48
75. Turkey 41
79. Brazil, China, India, 40
131. Russia 29
166. Venezuela, Iraq 17
174. North Korea 12
175. South Sudan 11
176. Somalia 10

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