Indonesia’s Suharto tops most corrupt list
By: Dorothy Kosich
Posted: 2004/03/29 Mon 12:32 EST | © Mineweb 1997-2004
RENO, NV (Mineweb.com) –Who is the most corrupt politician in recent memory?
Mining companies who have ever done business in Indonesia can instantly guess the answer: Mohamed Suharto, who allegedly embezzled $35 billion or a per capita $695 per person during his years as president of Indonesia. Suharto is joined on the list by two former presidents of the Philippines, former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori at $600 million, and the former Presidents of Zaire and Nigeria.
Transparency International released its new “Global Corruption Report 2004” Thursday, which includes industry case studies demonstrating the role of the private sector in supplying corrupt officials with funds. Fortunately, no mining companies were included in the natural resource case studies, which focused mainly on oil.
The bad news is that corruption still flourishes in the majority of the Central and Eastern European states that are hoping to join the European Union. Transparency International predicted that the situation will not improve once these nations join the EU. Meanwhile, in Latin America, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama and Paraguay still number among the world’s ten consistently most corrupt nations. And, to no one’s surprise, TI found that U.S. corporations still exert undue influence over the U.S. political process.
The “Mister Clean of Nations” is Finland, which ranked highest in terms of confidence on the TI Corruption Perception 2003 Index, followed by Iceland, Denmark and New Zealand. Rounding out the top ten in terms of squeaky clean governments were Singapore, Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia, Norway and Switzerland. Mining companies seeking to chart new frontiers in foreign investment might want to avoid Nigeria (ranked second from last). Also ranking in the bottom ten of the rogues’ gallery of corruption were Bangladesh, Paraguay, Myanmar, Tajikistan, Georgia, Cameroon, Azerbaijan, and Angola.
Folks surveyed in Argentina felt that corruption had a very significant effect on personal and family life, the business environment, political life, and culture and values. In fact, they felt more strongly than people of any other nation that corruption was pervasive in their lives. Interestingly, Columbians were the most confident in their beliefs that corruption had decreased at least by half in their country. Indonesians were nearly as optimistic about their potential corruption-free future.
The pessimists who felt that corruption would increase more than 50% in their nation were residents of India, followed by the Netherlands. South Africans were also very pessimistic, ranking seventh in their fears that corruption would only get worse. Residents of Turkey, Georgia, Cameroon, and, astonishingly, Norway, also forecast bleak futures for their political systems.
Multinational corporations aren’t helping matters with their bribery practices, according to the study. The UN Convention against Corruption, adopted in Mexico in December 2003, is the first global instrument offering a range of anti-corruption measures. It breaks new ground in relations to provisions on cross-border recovery of assets. The document must be ratified by 30 member states, an effort that will not occur until the end of next year at the earliest.
The UN Global Compact challenges business leaders to uphold nine universally agreed principles on human rights, labor rights, and respect for the environment. From its inception in 1999, the compact is now supported by more than 1000 companies worldwide. It asks participating companies to publish annual reports on their activities in support of the nine principles. The Global Compact office has advocated the creation of a 10th principal on transparency and against corruption.
This year’s TI corruption study is comprehensive, offering several tools to measure values or define corruption in political parties and governments. It contains reports highlighting developments concerning transparency and efforts to reduce corruption for a number of nations. |
