Slow but steady progress
Friday, 28 September 2007
A Karim
THE Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2007 of the global anti-graft watchdog, Transparency International (TI), has ranked Bangladesh at the seventh position from the bottom among 180 countries that are included in this year's CPI. That means Bangladesh is now the seventh most corrupt country in the world under the CPI.
In terms of ranking, Bangladesh's position has shown some improvement under the latest CPI, compared to that of the last year when it was placed in the third position among the most corrupt countries of the world. Earlier, Bangladesh was ranked at the top of the most corrupt countries. Now that combating corruption is high on the agenda of the government, TI's ranking of Bangladesh under its CPI this year will provide some welcome relief. However, time was not yet come to evaluate and access the full impact of the on-going anti-graft drive on the TI's CPI.
One would like to note here that the CPI provides, in a scale of 0-10, international ranking of countries in terms of perceived degree of prevalence of political and administrative corruption. Bangladesh's score has not made any change this year compared to that of the last year.
Bangladesh scored 2.0 points in 2007 -- the same as it did in 2006, on a scale of 10 points. Countries with a score below 3.0 points are described by TI as being "highly corrupt".
This steady score of Bangladesh shows, however, some improved performance compared with those of nine countries that had earlier scored better, according to the Bangladesh chapter of the TI.
"While most low-scoring countries continued a downward trend and even many high-ranking countries also received lower scores in 2007, Bangladesh was successful in resisting this," the statement of Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) said on the occasion of the release of the CPI report 2007.
Bangladesh's rank at 162 on CPI is also shared by Cambodia, Central African Republic, Papua New Guinea, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Prof Muzaffar Ahmed, Chairman of the TIB, stated at a media briefing Wednesday in Dhaka that scores were more important than the rank. "It means the position of Bangladesh remains the same as before," he noted.
In a South Asian perspective, Bangladesh remains, under the latest CPI of the TI, the second most country among the SAARC nations.
Under the index, war-torn Afghanistan has emerged as the most corrupt country among the member-nations of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. As the newest SAARC member, Afghanistan ranked fifth with a score of 1.8 among the 180 countries included this year in the CPI.
Bhutan, a landlocked nation in the Himalaya Mountains, with a score of 5.0 points ranked 46th in the CPI to be the least corrupt country in the SAARC region.
Among other SAARC member-countries, India ranked 72nd under the CPI 2007 of the TI scoring 3.5 points, the Maldives ranked 84th with 3.3 points, Sri Lanka 94th scoring 3.2, Nepal 131st with 2.5 points and military-ruled Pakistan 138th with 2.4 points.
While reviewing Bangladesh's performance in handling corruption in the last decade, Prof Muzaffar of the TIB was reported to have said that Bangladesh's score in CPI was 1.2 ten years ago.
It has taken 10 years for Bangladesh to improve its the score under the CPI from 1.2 to 2.0 points. If the country continues to improve at such a pace, it will take another 12 years to score 3.0 points, the acceptable level of corruption.
With score still at less than 3.0, Bangladesh, thus, continues to be a country where corruption is perceived to be high and widespread.
However, all concerned would expect that Bangladesh will start getting the result of the on-going anti-corruption drive of the government in the near future.
It has rightly been explained by the TIB Chairman Prof. Muzaffar Ahmed, that Bangladesh cannot be regarded as one of the most corrupt countries or nations.
That will, as he has observed, mean that the country or the nation is corrupt and that will be a misinterpretation and misunderstanding of the CPI. "The country is not corrupt. Some powerful individuals and institutions are corrupt. Most people are only victims of their corruption," he has, thus, pointed out.
Having noted this, one has to bear it mind that combating corruption is not an event. Rather, it is a process. With reforms continuing to put the basics -- institutions -- right, the process can be carried forward to a meaningful extent to curb corruption or minimise it, to an acceptable level.
No country is absolutely corruption-free. The CPI 2007 of the TI has not given full 10 points to any country. Denmark, Finland and New Zealand -- the countries which have jointly been ranked the first under the index to become the least corrupt countries in the world -- have scored each 9.4 points -- not 10 points full.
Under the CPI 2007, Somalia and Myanmar bottomed the list, meaning corruption in these two countries is perceived to be the highest, followed by Iraq and Haiti (second and third position respectively). Uzbekistan and Tonga are jointly in the fourth position followed by Sudan, Chad and Afghanistan (jointly fifth) which the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Laos and Guinea have been ranked jointly at the sixth position.
Among the Asian countries, Singapore has topped the list scoring 9.3 points, along with Sweden. This is least surprising, considering the norms of good governance that are firmly institutionalised in the both the countries. The compensation packages for public sector-employees in Singapore are also the most attractive ones in the world.
THE Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2007 of the global anti-graft watchdog, Transparency International (TI), has ranked Bangladesh at the seventh position from the bottom among 180 countries that are included in this year's CPI. That means Bangladesh is now the seventh most corrupt country in the world under the CPI.
In terms of ranking, Bangladesh's position has shown some improvement under the latest CPI, compared to that of the last year when it was placed in the third position among the most corrupt countries of the world. Earlier, Bangladesh was ranked at the top of the most corrupt countries. Now that combating corruption is high on the agenda of the government, TI's ranking of Bangladesh under its CPI this year will provide some welcome relief. However, time was not yet come to evaluate and access the full impact of the on-going anti-graft drive on the TI's CPI.
One would like to note here that the CPI provides, in a scale of 0-10, international ranking of countries in terms of perceived degree of prevalence of political and administrative corruption. Bangladesh's score has not made any change this year compared to that of the last year.
Bangladesh scored 2.0 points in 2007 -- the same as it did in 2006, on a scale of 10 points. Countries with a score below 3.0 points are described by TI as being "highly corrupt".
This steady score of Bangladesh shows, however, some improved performance compared with those of nine countries that had earlier scored better, according to the Bangladesh chapter of the TI.
"While most low-scoring countries continued a downward trend and even many high-ranking countries also received lower scores in 2007, Bangladesh was successful in resisting this," the statement of Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) said on the occasion of the release of the CPI report 2007.
Bangladesh's rank at 162 on CPI is also shared by Cambodia, Central African Republic, Papua New Guinea, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Prof Muzaffar Ahmed, Chairman of the TIB, stated at a media briefing Wednesday in Dhaka that scores were more important than the rank. "It means the position of Bangladesh remains the same as before," he noted.
In a South Asian perspective, Bangladesh remains, under the latest CPI of the TI, the second most country among the SAARC nations.
Under the index, war-torn Afghanistan has emerged as the most corrupt country among the member-nations of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. As the newest SAARC member, Afghanistan ranked fifth with a score of 1.8 among the 180 countries included this year in the CPI.
Bhutan, a landlocked nation in the Himalaya Mountains, with a score of 5.0 points ranked 46th in the CPI to be the least corrupt country in the SAARC region.
Among other SAARC member-countries, India ranked 72nd under the CPI 2007 of the TI scoring 3.5 points, the Maldives ranked 84th with 3.3 points, Sri Lanka 94th scoring 3.2, Nepal 131st with 2.5 points and military-ruled Pakistan 138th with 2.4 points.
While reviewing Bangladesh's performance in handling corruption in the last decade, Prof Muzaffar of the TIB was reported to have said that Bangladesh's score in CPI was 1.2 ten years ago.
It has taken 10 years for Bangladesh to improve its the score under the CPI from 1.2 to 2.0 points. If the country continues to improve at such a pace, it will take another 12 years to score 3.0 points, the acceptable level of corruption.
With score still at less than 3.0, Bangladesh, thus, continues to be a country where corruption is perceived to be high and widespread.
However, all concerned would expect that Bangladesh will start getting the result of the on-going anti-corruption drive of the government in the near future.
It has rightly been explained by the TIB Chairman Prof. Muzaffar Ahmed, that Bangladesh cannot be regarded as one of the most corrupt countries or nations.
That will, as he has observed, mean that the country or the nation is corrupt and that will be a misinterpretation and misunderstanding of the CPI. "The country is not corrupt. Some powerful individuals and institutions are corrupt. Most people are only victims of their corruption," he has, thus, pointed out.
Having noted this, one has to bear it mind that combating corruption is not an event. Rather, it is a process. With reforms continuing to put the basics -- institutions -- right, the process can be carried forward to a meaningful extent to curb corruption or minimise it, to an acceptable level.
No country is absolutely corruption-free. The CPI 2007 of the TI has not given full 10 points to any country. Denmark, Finland and New Zealand -- the countries which have jointly been ranked the first under the index to become the least corrupt countries in the world -- have scored each 9.4 points -- not 10 points full.
Under the CPI 2007, Somalia and Myanmar bottomed the list, meaning corruption in these two countries is perceived to be the highest, followed by Iraq and Haiti (second and third position respectively). Uzbekistan and Tonga are jointly in the fourth position followed by Sudan, Chad and Afghanistan (jointly fifth) which the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Laos and Guinea have been ranked jointly at the sixth position.
Among the Asian countries, Singapore has topped the list scoring 9.3 points, along with Sweden. This is least surprising, considering the norms of good governance that are firmly institutionalised in the both the countries. The compensation packages for public sector-employees in Singapore are also the most attractive ones in the world.