In corruption mera Bharat mahaan, but hum se aage hain Pakistan - The Indian Express

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India ranks ninth in a corruption index listing 54 coun-
tries, according to a 1996 survey of business attitudes
conducted by Transparency International (T1), a Berlin-
based non-governmental coalition that seeks to curb
international corruption.

Nigeria is perceived as the most corrupt country, fol-
lowed by Pakistan. They are followed by Kenya, Bangla-
desh, China, Cameroon, Venezuela, Russia, India and
Indonesia.

The ten least corrupt countries are New Zealand, Denmark,
Sweden, Finland, Canada, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland,
Netherlands and Australia in that order. The US is
ranked 15th least corrupt.

"Corruption is a major impediment to social, political
and economic development across the globe," Peter Eigen,
TI Chairman and a former World Bank official said at a
briefing here today. "But world over, governments are
now searching for constructive approaches to fight this
cancer," he added.

According to the TI source book, the corruption index is
assessed by the perceptions of people working for multi-
national firms and institutions as impacting commercial
and social life. The index is not based on any empirical
evidence or an assessment of the actual level of corrup-
tion but rather an assessment about perceptions.

TI said the index was prepared using 10 sources - ranging
from DRI/McGraw Hill Global Risk Service to Economic Risk
Consultants Ltd in Hong Kong to assess the national
surveys of business people. All 54 countries which were
assessed had at least four separate polls of businessmen
conducted. TI acknowledged that the figures "cannot be
regarded as objective. Rather they represent the subjec-
tive evaluation of business people."

The report also rejected the commonly used argument that
attempts to link the public acceptance of bribes to
culture. "TI is firm in the view that paying bribes is
wrong and has no basis for ethical or legal support in
any society," the organisation said. "That bribery may
be tolerated in some countries more than in others may
say a lot more about the politics and the legal systems
than about deeper matters."

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