MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile and Uruguay the least corrupt in Latinamerica.

Chile and Uruguay figure among the least corrupt countries in Latinamerica according to the latest report from the International Transparency Corruption Perceptions Index for 2004 which was released this week in Berlin.

The annual report relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people, academics and risk analysts ranging between 10 (highly clean) and zero (highly corrupt) in the 146 countries ranked.

The overall chart indicates that seven out of ten countries are below the 5 index, and five out of ten developing countries are below the score of 3 points.

Chile according to the latest release stands at 7,4 points above the 7,1 of such developed countries as Spain and France with 7,1, and Uruguay figures with 6,2. In the 1 to 146 ranking, with Finland number 1 (9,7 points), Chile stands number 20 and Uruguay 28. Among developed countries New Zealand is number 2 with 9,6 points; Australia 9 with 8,8 points; Britain 11 with 8,6; Germany 15 with 8,2; United States 17 with 7,5 points and other EU members such as Portugal 27 with 6,3 points; Italy 42 with 4,8 points and Greece 49 with 4,3 points.

Regarding Mercosur members, Brazil scores 3,9 points and ranks 59 in the list, while Argentina with 2,5 points ranks 108, dropping from position 92 in the previous report. Paraguay figures among the most corrupt countries with 1,9 points and 140 in the list, while Haiti together with Bangladesh, two of the poorest countries in the world figure as the least honest of all with 1,5 points.

Cuba stands middle of the list in position 60 next to Panama both scoring 3,7 points.

"This year our index shows alarming signals since no less than 106 countries out of 146 are below a score of five points; sixty countries are below three points and seven countries can't even score two points", said Peter Eigen president of Transparency during the presentation of the latest report.

"Corruption deprives countries of their growth potential", added Mr. Eigen pointing out to rich countries in oil resources such as Ecuador, Venezuela, Angola, Chad, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Russia, Sudan and Yemen which figure precisely among the least honest.

"In those and other oil producing countries, income from oil ends in the pockets of executives from Western oil companies, middle men and local officials", underlined Mr. Eigen who referred to the phenomenon as the "curse of crude".

Venezuela scores 2,3 and stands 114 in the list and Ecuador 2,4 points and ranks 112.

"Extended corruption in government spending and contracts represents a great obstacle for sustained development and causes a loss of funds for education, health and improving conditions for the poor", added Mr. Eigen.

However in Argentina the latest TI report does not coincide with the results of an opinion poll among the country's top businessmen undertaken by international consultants KPMG, which indicates a perception of the "least corruption in the last twenty years", under the current administration.

TI representative in Argentina is Poder Ciudadano (Citizens Power) whose president Mario Rejtman Farah, admitted the country remains identified among the "endemic corruption" category but praised the current administration commitment to "greater transparency" and long term policies.

Apparently this year's TI report on Argentina was based on 18 confidential questionnaires to twelve independent institutions among which, International Institute of Development Management from Switzerland; World Bank; World Economic Forum; The Economist Intelligence Unit; Pricewaterhouse & Coopers; Columbia University, NY; World Market Research Centre and a multilateral development bank.

Transparency International is a Non Government Organization founded in 1993 with branches in 87 countries dedicated exclusively to combat corruption.