MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

How corrupt are you perceived?

Transparency International, TI, the London based organization that fights corruption said this Tuesday that nine out of ten developing countries need practical support from overseas to help with corruption since they can't do it with their own means.

"Rich countries must provide practical support to developing countries governments that express political willingness to combat corruption. Those countries with a high degree of corruption should not be penalized since they urgently need help", stated TI president.

Mr. Eigen's remarks came during the annual official presentation of the TI Corruption Perceptions Index 2003 which classifies countries according to the degree of corruption perceived among civil servants and politicians. The Index is based mainly in opinion polls and interviews with businessmen and analysts.

According to the latest report seven out of ten countries were below 5,0 in a 10 points rank with ten equivalent to zero perceived corruption. Besides, five out of ten developing countries were below the 3 points mark.

Corruption is a dominant factor in Bangladesh, Nigeria, Haiti, Paraguay, Myanmar, Cameroon, Angola, Tajikistan, Kenya, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Indonesia, all of them below the two points mark.

At the other extreme over the 9 points mark figure Iceland, Denmark, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden and Finland that tops the list with 9,7 points.

Australia actually jumped from position 11 to 8 in 2003 with points increasing 8,6 to 8,8. Spain figures in position 23, down from 20 in 2002 with points dropping from 7,1 to 6,9.

Chile is the best of Latinamerican countries again in 2003 although having fallen from position 17 to 20 and a slight drop in points: from 7,5 in 2002 to 7,4 this year.

United Kingdom remained virtually unchanged with 8,7 points and a step down from 10 to 11 position this year.

United States dropped to position 18 from 16 in 2002 with a points fall from 7,7 to 7,5.

Uruguay is the second best ranked Latinamerican country and figures in the same position, 33, but with a points improvement from 5,1 last year to 5,5 in 2003. The rest of Latinamerican countries are below the 5 points line.

Brazil is down from position 45 to 54 with points dropping from 4 to 3,9.

Argentina collapsed from position 70 to 92 and points dropping from 2,8 to 2,5. Paraguay the other full member of Mercosur figures among the list of countries with corruption most ingrained.

Mr. Eigen indicated that Argentina and Chile are among the countries that lost most points together with Canada, United States, Israel, Luxemburg and Poland, while among those with significant improvements figure Colombia, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Malaysia and Norway.

Rosa Inés Ospina Robledo from Colombia and TI vice-president underlined that transparency in government contracting is essential for those countries that figure at the end of the list, adding that the "private sector must be responsible for its conduct both inside and outside of the country and must put an end to bribing officials".

IT also pointed out that corruption is not absent in rich countries and specifically named Italy, Greece and others potentially rich because of oil income such as Venezuela, Nigeria, Indonesia, Libya.