Thursday, September 27

Corruption requires somebody to pay and somebody to demand

We keep on thinking that the third world is corrupt and all. Yes Sir, it sure is. But remember what I said here, you need somebody to pay the bribes, and as Transparency International says:

“Despite some gains, corruption remains an enormous drain on resources sorely needed for education, health and infrastructure,” said Huguette Labelle, Chair of Transparency International. “Low scoring countries need to take these results seriously and act now to strengthen accountability in public institutions. But action from top scoring countries is just as important, particularly in cracking down on corrupt activity in the private sector.”

But corruption by high-level public officials in poor countries has an international dimension that implicates the CPI’s top scorers. Bribe money often stems from multinationals based in the world’s richest countries. It can no longer be acceptable for these companies to regard bribery in export markets as a legitimate business strategy.

Akere Muna, Vice Chair of Transparency International, pointed to the recovery of stolen assets as another area ripe for enhanced action by developed nations, noting, “Criticism by rich countries of corruption in poor ones has little credibility while their financial institutions sit on wealth stolen from the world’s poorest people.”

Now, why is the United Kingdom only 12th in the list? point to the fact that our legal system has challenges, we support corrupt companies such as BAE and worse, our politicians do not wish to make a stand either. And India/China are at 72, USA is at 20, Israel at 30, etc. etc. See the table here

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