U.S. slips to historic low in global corruption index
A couple pushes a stroller at the base of the Washington Monument, December 29, 2009.
Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
By Dave Graham
BERLIN | Tue Oct 26, 2010 11:53am EDT
BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States has dropped out of the "top 20" in a global league table of least corrupt nations, tarnished by financial scandals and the influence of money in politics, Transparency International said on Tuesday.
Somalia was judged the most corrupt country, followed by Myanmar and Afghanistan at joint second-worst and then by Iraq, in the Berlin-based watchdog TI's annual corruption perceptions index (CPI).
The United States fell to 22nd from 19th last year, with its CPI score dropping to 7.1 from 7.5 in the 178-nation index, which is based on independent surveys on corruption.
This was the lowest score awarded to the United States in the index's 15-year history and also the first time it had fallen out of the top 20.
In the Americas, this put the United States behind Canada in sixth place, Barbados at 17th and Chile in 21st place.
Jointly heading the index -- in which a score of 10 indicates a country with the highest standards, and 0 as highly corrupt -- were Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore with 9.3. They were also at the top of the table last year.
Somalia scored 1.1. The watchdog group said its table was based on "different assessments and business opinion surveys carried out by independent and reputable institutions."
U.S. "INTEGRITY DEFICIT"
Nancy Boswell, president of TI in the United States, said lending practices in the subprime crisis, the disclosure of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme and rows over political funding had all rattled public faith about prevailing ethics in America.
"We're not talking about corruption in the sense of breaking the law," she said. "We're talking about a sense that the system is corrupted by these practices. There's an integrity deficit."
Various financial scandals at state and city level had encouraged the impression that the regulatory oversight was weak and that influence could be bought, she added.
The index showed a number of countries -- including Iran -- climbing up the chart significantly from 2009, though TI said this could often be ascribed to the fact that different surveys were being used that offered no direct comparison to last year.
The fact that nearly three quarters of the countries scored 5.0 or less showed corruption was still a major global problem, said Robin Hodess, director of policy and research at TI.
However, the watchdog identified Bhutan, Chile, Ecuador, Macedonia, Gambia, Haiti, Jamaica, Kuwait, and Qatar as states where improvement had been made over the past year.
By contrast, it highlighted the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Madagascar, Niger and the United States as nations where perceptions had deteriorated.
(Editing by Andrew Roche)
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National Accountability Ordinance
Individuals convicted under the National Accountability Ordinance are prohibited from holding political office for ten years.Corruption by sector
Courts
In 2010, 69% of those surveyed reported that they or someone in their household was subjected to an act of corruption when interacting with the judicial system. Of 339 affirmative respondents asked to identify the actors involved in corruption, 119 said court employees, 84 said a public prosecutor, 50 said a witness, 44 said a judge, 29 said an opponent lawyer, 16 said magistrates, and 12 said others.Education
As of 2010, 24% of those surveyed reported that they themselves or a family member received educational admission through non-normal. The countries biggest issue is presence of non uniform educational system.On one hand there are institutions modeled on western educational system; This system is run by private sector educational institutes that charge fees a ordinary citizen cannot afford. So essentially these institutes are utilized by the elite class( Politicians , Technocrats, Bureaucrats,Business class) .The same is also the reason for deteriorating standards of Public Sector educational institutes.As the elite class only enroll there children in private schools modeled on western institutes.Than there are Government run public schools that face increasing challenges and due to incompetence of consecutive Governments has only accelerated the rate of their decline.Lack of funding, Elite class non utilization, Poor Governance ,Under qualified Faculty are some of the reasons for their falling standards.Corruption in education sector is not a novice in Pakistan . Embezzlement of funds , Thousands of ghost schools ( those that only exist in papers), taking bribe to sell confidential material to candidates,Poor utilization of funds, Educational Ministry run by illiterate politicians that lack vision for education.Health care
In 2010, 42% of surveyed individuals reported gaining access to hospital services by a method other than standard admission, and 48% reported either having to pay additional costs for essential services or being forced to utilize the services of a designated affiliate. Of the respondents who were asked to identify which parties orchestrated the corrupt acts, 61% reported hospital staff, 25% reported doctors, and 13% reported nurses.Law enforcement and the police
Corruption is evident in the lower levels of the police in Pakistan. In fact, many citizens believe that the police is the most corrupt sector of the Pakistani government.In July 2010, the Transparency International noted that the major cause for corruption in this sector was due to the lack of accountability and merit, and low salaries.Payment of bribes in order to escape and avoid charges was also commonplace; 31% of 4,224 respondents reported paying bribes to the police.In 2005, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz ordered an investigation into claims by a 23-year-old woman who alleged that, in retaliation for attempting to reveal police corruption, police falsely detained her for fifteen days and raped her.As of 2010, videos captured of officers taking bribes in various locales such as Peshawar and QuettaPublic utilities
As of 2002, 96% of surveyed individuals reported corruption issues with electrical utility officials during the past year.The most common types of corruption were billing related. Some consumers admitted to illegally reducing their utility bills, while others reported being harassed with inflated bills intended to solicit bribes. Out of the pool of corruption-affirmative respondents, 71% reported that money was "demanded directly by the actor"Sports
In August 2010, reporters from News of the World orchestrated a sting operation which was able to identify three Pakistani cricket players – Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir – and a bookmaker Mazhar Majeed of being complacent in a row over spot-fixing in the fourth England-Pakistan test match at Lord's.The cricketers each received 30 months, one year and six months jail term respectively while the bookmaker received two years and eight months jail term in a verdict issued by the Southwark Crown Court on November 3, 2011.Following these events, on 15 November 2011, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Zaka Ashraf established an anti-corruption unit to prevent players from becoming involved in illegal betting practicesTaxation
According to the 2002 study, 99% of 256 respondents reported facing corruption of taxation. Furthermore, 32% of respondents reported paying bribes to have their tax assessment lowered, and nearly 14% reported receiving fictitious tax assessments until a bribe was paid.RegardsShoaib Habib MemonThatta-SindhCell.0314 2090252
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