Losing Patience with Corruption

There is a growing political movement against corruption.   The trend is unmistakable – from the Arab Spring across the Middle East, to  India, to the fall of Berlusconi in Italy, and even to the Occupy Wall Street movement, public anger against corruption has increased.  The political toll has been high.  Governments have fallen in response to claims of corruption and misconduct.

Last week, Transparency International released its Corruptions Perception Index for 2011.  Transparency International’s report demonstrated that corruption continues to infect many countries around the world.

Transparency International warned that protests around the world, often fueled by corruption and economic instability, clearly show citizens feel their leaders and public institutions are neither transparent nor accountable enough.

The CPI index scored 183 countries – two thirds of the countries scored in the corrupt scale based on data from 17 surveys that look at factors such as enforcement of anti-corruption laws, access to information and conflicts of interest.

The BRIC countries scored – Brazil (73), Russia (143), India (95), and China (75).  New Zealand ranked first, followed by Finland and Denmark.  Somalia and North Korea were ranked last.   Venezuela, Libya, Haiti and Iraq were all near the bottom in the rankings.  Nigeria and Russia tied at 143.  Mexico, Indonesia and Argentina tied at 100.

Almost all of the Arab Spring countries scored in the lower half of the index.

Here is a link to the 2011 report -- http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011/results/