Poor Nations Ranked As Some Of Most Corrupt
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BERLIN , November 7, 2006 – Nearly three-quarters of 163 countries ranked in a new survey suffer from a perception of serious corruption, while in nearly half it is seen as rampant, a watchdog group reported Monday.
Transparency International's 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index gives the worst scores to many of the world's poorest countries, including almost all African nations, indicating a strong correlation between corruption and poverty.
The stragglers also included several so-called "failed states," including Iraq, which dropped from 137th place last year to second-to-last as the situation there continues to deteriorate.
"Corruption traps millions in poverty," the agency's international chairman Huguette Labelle said in a statement. "Despite a decade of progress in establishing anti-corruption laws and regulations, today's results indicate that much remains to be done."
The agency's scale is based on the perceptions of the degree of corruption by businesspeople and country analysts. Countries are ranked out of 10, and anything below 5 indicates "serious" perceived levels of corruption, and anything below 3 "rampant," the agency said.
Several former Soviet republics fared relatively well, with Estonia ranking 24th with a 6.7 rating, Lithuania 46th with 4.8 and Latvia 49th with 4.7.
In contrast, the perception of corruption in Russia was a dismal 2.5, putting it in a 121st-place tie with several other nations, including Rwanda and Swaziland.
Faring the best were Finland, Iceland and New Zealand, in a first-place tie with rankings of 9.6. Filling out the top 10 were Denmark, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Australia and the Netherlands.
Britain was 11th with an 8.6 rating, Germany 16th at 8.0 and the United States 20th with 7.3.
At the bottom of the list in place 163 was Haiti with a 1.8 rating; Guinea, Iraq and Myanmar tied in second-last with 1.9.
Transparency International did not rank countries for which not enough data was available, including Afghanistan, Somalia and North Korea.
Source: The Associated Press
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