Unregulated Money in Politics Is Greatest Corruption Threat Globally, Study Finds

18 Feb 2009 16:00 Africa/Lagos

Unregulated Money in Politics Is Greatest Corruption Threat Globally, Study Finds

Iraq and Somalia Included For First Time in New Report Assessing Anti-Corruption Mechanisms and Government Accountability in 57 Countries

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Regardless of income levels, the #1 corruption threat facing a majority of countries is the unregulated flow of money into the political process, a new report finds. The report, a major investigative study of 57 countries, was released today by Global Integrity, an award-winning international nonprofit organization that tracks governance and corruption trends globally.


"For the third straight year, poor transparency around the financing of political parties and candidates was the weakest element of most countries' anti-corruption frameworks," said Global Integrity's Managing Director, Nathaniel Heller. "If we're serious about rolling back corruption and abuse of power in both the developed and developing worlds, more effective safeguards to curb the influence of money in politics are desperately needed. The Rod Blagojevichs of the world are just the tip of the iceberg."


The Global Integrity Report: 2008 covers developed countries such as Canada, Japan and Italy as well as dozens of the world's emerging markets and developing nations, from Argentina and China to the West Bank and Iraq. Rather than measure perceptions of corruption, the report assesses the accountability mechanisms and transparency measures in place (or not) to prevent corruption through more than 300 "Integrity Indicators." Gaps in those safeguards suggest where corruption is more likely to occur.


Global Integrity's new Grand Corruption Watch List, introduced as part of the 2008 report, includes Angola, Belarus, Cambodia, China, Georgia, Iraq, Montenegro, Morocco, Nicaragua, Serbia, Somalia, the West Bank, and Yemen, all countries viewed at serious risk for high-level corruption. The Watch List identifies countries where the lack of effective conflicts of interest regulations, unregulated flows of money into the political process, and poor oversight over large state-owned enterprises combine to pose a systemic risk of large-scale theft of public resources. "Watch List countries are unfortunately characterized by a toxic mix of corruption risk factors that should be cause for alarm," said Heller.


Other major findings of the report include the following:

-- The most significant anti-corruption failure in much of the Arab world
is poor access to government information. While the countries in the
Middle East and North Africa assessed in the 2008 Report struggle to
match global medians on many factors, their comprehensive lack of
effective access to government information is virtually double those
countries' deficit on any other issue assessed by Global Integrity.

-- Several key countries experienced gains or backsliding since 2007.
Important anti-corruption improvements were noted in Bangladesh and
Nigeria; in China, a more positive assessment was linked to the
introduction of a new regulation granting citizens access to
government information. Noticeable decliners included Bosnia and
Herzegovina and Ecuador; Georgia also slipped for the second straight
year and continues to struggle consolidating democratic gains since
the 2003 Rose Revolution.

-- Corruption and transparency challenges appear to be worsening on the
Horn of Africa, threatening to exacerbate tensions in an
already-fragile security situation. Drops in performance in Kenya and
Ethiopia, combined with Somalia's ignominious honor of boasting the
worst-ever overall Global Integrity country score, do not bode well
for establishing the kinds of checks and balances in all three
countries that could promote good governance and improve stability.


"The country assessments that comprise the Report offer among the most detailed, evidence-based evaluations of anti-corruption mechanisms available anywhere in the world," said Global Integrity's International Director, Marianne Camerer. "They provide policymakers, investors, and citizens alike with the information to understand the governance challenges unique to each country and to take action."


The report is the product of months of on-the-ground reporting and data gathering by a team of more than 260 in-country journalists and researchers who prepared more than a million words of text and 20,000 data points for their respective countries. The 2008 report covers the following diverse countries:


Albania
Angola
Argentina
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
Belarus
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
D.R. Congo
Ecuador
Egypt
Ethiopia
Fiji
Georgia
Ghana
Guatemala
Hungary
India
Indonesia
Iraq
Italy
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kuwait
Kyrgyz Republic
Lithuania
Macedonia (FYROM)
Moldova
Montenegro
Morocco
Nepal
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Pakistan
Philippines
Poland
Romania
Russia
Serbia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
Tanzania
Tunisia
Turkey
Uganda
West Bank
Yemen
Zimbabwe


To access the Global Integrity Report: 2008, please visit http://report.globalintegrity.org/.


The Global Integrity Report: 2008 was generously supported by the Australian Agency for International Development, the Canadian International Development Agency, the Legatum Institute, and the World Bank.


Global Integrity is a leading international non-profit organization that tracks governance and corruption trends around the world. Working with a network of several hundred in-country journalists and researchers in 92 countries, we aim to shape and inform the debate around governance and anti-corruption reforms through in-depth diagnostic tools at the national, sub-national, and sector levels. Our information is regularly used by aid donors, civil society advocates, and governments alike to press for governance reforms in both the developed and developing world. For more information about the organization, visit http://www.globalintegrity.org/.


Source: Global Integrity

CONTACT: Nathaniel Heller, +1-202-449-4100,
nathaniel.heller@globalintegrity.org, or Jonathan Werve, +1-202-449-8123,
jonathan.werve@globalintegrity.org, both of Global Integrity


Web Site: http://report.globalintegrity.org/


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