World’s losing battle against corruption

Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, 2016, released on January 25, recommends the following steps in the war against corruption:

• Stopping the revolving door between business leaders and high-ranking government positions
• Holding the corrupt to account rather than letting corrupt officials hide behind political immunity
• Enforcing greater controls on banks, luxury goods sellers, lawyers and real estate agents who help launder corrupt money
• Outlawing the use of secret companies that hide the identity of the real owners

Both India and China improved their score in the index to 40, India (38 in 2015) by two points and China (37) by three. Even Afghanistan, among the 10 most corrupt countries, moved up by four points. India had scored 36 in 2013.

None of the 176 countries surveyed scored a perfect score of 100. Denmark and New Zealand emerged as the least corrupt in the index with a score of 90 each, followed by Finland (89) and Sweden (88).

But the report by Transparency International this year highlights the link between growing inequality induced by corruption. Collusion between business and politics, the report notes, continues to make it easy for the rich and the resourceful to exploit the opaqueness of the financial system.

HOW POPULIST POLITICIANS MISLEAD PEOPLE ON CORRUPTION

The report also takes note of the rise of populist leaders who have taken advantage of the popular discontent among people over pervasive ‘public sector corruption’.

“Trump and many other populist leaders regularly make a connection between a “corrupt elite” interested only in enriching themselves and their (rich) supporters and the marginalisation of “working people,” the report notes before adding, “ Yet, the track record of populist leaders in tackling this problem is dismal; they use the corruption-inequality message to drum up support but have no intention of tackling the problem seriously,” writes Finn Heinrich of Transparency International.

Kate Hanlon while analysing the data from Asia Pacific countries, said, “ As history shows, turning back the corruption tide is often as hard as preventing a phony corruption fighter from getting into office in the first place. To pre-empt this, mainstream governments need to get much more serious about breaking the vicious cycle between corruption and social inequality.”

Referring to the recommendations mentioned at the beginning of this report, Hanlon goes on to say, “These proposals require the investment of substantial political capital by government leaders to confront entrenched interests. It is in the interests of democratic governments to use that capital so they can again deliver on their central promise to provide equal opportunities for all.”