What a Rotten World It Can Be: Report Says Three-Fourths of World Is Corrupt

What a Rotten World It Can Be: Report Says Three-Fourths of World Is Corrupt

What a Rotten World It Can Be: Report Says Three-Fourths of World IsCorrupt

There's good news if you are fortunate enough to live in places like Denmark, Finland, Canada and the Netherlands: they rank among the least corrupt nations in the world, according to Transparency International's corruption perception index 2010.

But the bad news is that if you live in three-quarters of the nations on the annual list, you probably make your home in some seedy places, meaning much of the world is pretty darn corrupt.

The data for the list comes from a variety of assessments and business opinion surveys that are compiled and measured by several institutions. The CPI defines corruption as "the abuse of entrusted power for private gain" in both the public and private sectors. On the list's scale, a 10 is considered very clean, while 0 is considered highly corrupt.

The organization, which calls itself a "global civil society organization" crusades against corruption throughout the world and believes that around the world it traps people in poverty, fosters unrest throughout nations, and ultimately undermines democracy and rule of law. The group insists in the report that transparency and accountability is key to ending global corruption.

Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore all tied for the first place, scoring 9.3 with Sweden and Finland coming behind them at 9.2 with Canada, the Netherlands and Australia all in the high 8's. However, Iraq, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Somalia have some serious mopping to do, at the very least, with each of them scoring 1.5 or below

India has slipped to 87th spot in Transparency International's latest ranking of nations based on the level of corruption, with the global watchdog asserting that perceptions about corruption in the country increased in the wake of the CWG. The Corruption Perception Index' report covering the public sector in 178 countries shows that India fell by three positions since 2009.

As for the United States, well, it seems the pesky ghost of Watergate just won't go away because the Land of the Free scored 22 at 7.1, tying with Belgium and falling in behind Japan, Qatar, the United Kingdom and Chile. At least we're doing better than Uruguay and France.

A national corruption committee with the mandate to monitor and enforce anti-corruption laws is needed, as is the full enforcement of the United Nations convention against corruption, which is an important step and vital for transforming political rhetoric into action on the group, LTA said.

But the UN convention alone is not a certain way of curbing the practice, and many developed countries that have adopted it in full have nonetheless seen their corruption rankings fall in light of the global worldwide recession.

Only some 16 countries are currentlyenforcing the convention, which includes preventing nationals from bribing foreign officials, in full. This sends a "wrong signal" about their commitment to eliminating the practice.

Countries that have been worst hit by the crisis seem to have deteriorated the most in terms of transparency, with the US, UK and Iceland all falling in the rankings over the last two years.

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