Study Finds 25 Nations Hindered by Corruption
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 30, 2004; Page A27
A survey of government accountability and openness in 25 countries around the globe has found that each one is challenged by corruption and lacks sufficient protections against electoral abuses, including developed democracies such as the United States, Germany and Japan.
The year-long effort involved 150 journalists, social scientists and researchers on six continents under the supervision of a nonpartisan Washington-based group, the Center for Public Integrity. The resulting report, released yesterday, produced a ranking of nations in which none was labeled "very strong" on integrity of key institutions and accountability to the public.
The United States was joined by Portugal, Australia, Italy, Germany and South Africa in receiving a "strong" rating, while seven countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa received "moderate" ratings. Russia joined Panama, Indonesia, Kenya and six other countries in being rated "weak." Guatemala and Zimbabwe fell below that level.
"This study shows that no country, regardless of wealth, size or population, is immune from corruption" and its ensuing problems, said Charles Lewis, the center's executive director. He said the study was meant to illuminate the "true extent and specific nature of abuses of power" around the globe and to help the public press for reforms.
In comparing nations on a rudimentary scale of anti-corruption mechanisms, the center joins a growing number of groups shining a spotlight on governance problems that have historically been given short shrift by U.S. and allied governments, as well as by the World Bank, the European Union and other major aid donors.
Only in the past decade has corruption been regarded by key international funders as a serious hindrance to development, and only in the past two years -- under a controversial Bush administration foreign aid program known as the Millennium Challenge Account -- has the United States emphasized good governance as a key condition for economic assistance.
But donors' attitudes toward corruption are slowly being changed by the work of groups such as Transparency International, which annually surveys corruption in 34 countries with financial support from Britain, Germany, the United States and private foundations.
"Legal regimes governing political finance are generally inadequate" everywhere, Transparency International said in its 2004 report, explaining that no regulations exist in one-third of the countries and that enforcement is weak in many others. It also cautioned that corruption has been pervasive in the former communist countries set this weekend to join the EU, which lacks a comprehensive anti-corruption strategy.
Similar warnings have been made by the American Bar Association, which recently prepared a judicial reform index and surveyed institutional shortcomings in 15 struggling Central European and Eurasian nations.
According to the Center for Public Integrity's survey -- which Lewis called "a work in progress" that he wants to expand to 25 additional nations next year -- particular shortcomings exist in mechanisms to ensure that elections are free and fair, a key test of democracy. Turkey, for example, now trying to clear a series of hurdles so it can eventually join the EU, lacks laws providing for public audits of political party finances and public access to reports about campaign financing and candidate assets.
Turkey's head of state, and those in 13 other countries in the survey, cannot be prosecuted for corruption. Turkey also scored its "weak" ranking because journalists there have been harmed or imprisoned for investigating corruption, a circumstance it shared with 16 other nations, and because the ruling party controls two-thirds or more of the parliamentary seats -- a feature shared by five other countries.
More-developed countries were not above reproach, however. Australia, Germany, India, Italy and Japan were criticized because the top official in each of those countries -- as well as in Namibia and Zimbabwe -- is not legally obligated to disclose publicly all personal assets.
Although the United States was rated strong or very strong in nearly every index measure, it was faulted in particular for lacking a national ombudsman -- along with four others of the 25 nations surveyed -- and for ineffective protections of government whistle-blowers. Lewis also sharply criticized the climate in Washington in which former officials and relatives of top officials in the Bush and Clinton administrations have profited from their access to decision makers.
"It's not Indonesia, Nigeria or Russia that boasts such an unabashed, mercenary culture in which influence peddlers so shamelessly cash in . . . but the United States," Lewis said. Private gain from public life, he noted, is both common and legal here.
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