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/
It is a real concern. As an officer in the anti-corruption agency, I witnessed a lot of things. Governments have to be stop their reluctance, and show their concern by allocating sufficient budget, manpower and others to strengthen anti-corruption agencies.
I visited certain public institution, where a lot of people go for various services. surprisingly their services qualities are deteriorating and the public have to wait for long hours to get them. In some instances the employees are reluctant to provide what is expected of them without some amount of bribe.
It is surprising as it is only few years since these agencies are transformed to quality and efficient service providers with appropriate complaint hearing facilities through a BPR program conducted all over the country.
Actually the anti-corruption commission recently arrested many officials and employees suspected of corruption and misconduct but there is no sign of improvement. that is why i say in the beginning that governments should show their real concern by strengthening the anti-corruption agencies so that they put in place effective prevention mechanism
I Hope this observation of mine fits a lot of countries especially those in the Sub-Saharan Africa.
The global economic crises demands a lot in terms of the wise use of resources. we see leaders giving their presidency to others better in terms of leading their country out of crises. It is a great measure. equally important is countering corruption and wise allocation of resources to the intended purpose.