Corruption Index-2021: India still at the top!

Slight improvement in India’s rank; Pak declines steeply; bribery, use of personal connections and vote-buying most familiar forms of corruption in Asia.

M.A. Siraj

Corruption is an all-pervasive ailment. It exists all across the globe, irrespective of the political or economic system a nation adopts and thrives in both models of economies, be it market-driven or socialist. It undermines the functioning and legitimacy of institutions and processes, hollows out administrative apparatuses and ultimately destroys states itself. If corruption is allowed to thrive, it threatens the poor and the marginalized groups more than the elite and the rich. It retards their capacity to share the services and resources of the state and impedes their effective integration with the society and the state.

The annual report and the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) brought out by the Transparency International puts in sharp focus the insidious implications of corruption. It is awaited all across the globe to measure the efficiency of the governance across nations and their role in allowing equal access to essential amenities and services to the general public.

The CPI-2021 released on January 25 ranks Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany among the best performers in matters of corruption notching up the top 10 ranks among countries with least corruption. The Index which grades 180 countries on a scale of zero to 100 (zero for highly corrupt and 100 for very clean) has put Afghanistan, North Korea, Yemen, Venezuela, Somalia, Syria and South Sudan as the most corrupt, occupying ranks from 174 to 180. The Report says, countries experiencing armed conflict or authoritarianism tend to earn the lowest scores. Venezuela is placed 14th, while Afghanistan and North Korea are placed on 16. Yemen and Libya share 17th rank and Turkmenistan stands at 19. The report says countries experiencing armed conflict or authoritarianism tend to earn the lowest scores.

India’s rank improved one place to 85th among 180 countries from 86th last year. Pakistan score slipped 16 spots in the index and is ranked 140. On the zero to 100 scale, India is placed at 40 whereas Pakistan has scored 28. Others in the neighbourhood are as follows: Sri Lanka 37, Nepal 33, Bangladesh 26, Bhutan 66, China 45, and Myanmar 28. Among the Gulf nations, Saudi Arabia was ranked 53, Iraq 23, Qatar 63, the UAE 67, Oman 52 and Kuwait 43.

Among the Developed countries the United States scored 67, Russia 27 France 71, the United Kingdom 78. Canada 74, Germany 80, Finland 88, and Australia 73 are among the least corrupt countries.

More than twothirds of countries i.e., 68% score below 50 and the average global score remains static at 43. Since 2012, according to the report, 25 countries have significantly improved their ranking but in the same period 23 countries witnessed significant decline in score. Overall, the CPI shows that corruption has stagnated or worsened in 86% of countries over the last decade. In the last five years, several countries have fallen significantly down the index, including Canada, Nicaragua, Honduras, Venezuela. The improvers include Armenia, Angola, South Korea, Uzbekistan, Moldova and Ethiopia.

The reports says, the organisation’s analysis of this year’s CPI shows that upholding human rights is crucial in the fight against corruption, with countries who violate civil liberties generally scoring lower on the CPI. It further says, corruption affects the delivery of public services, the dispensation of justice and the provision of safety for all. “In particular, grand corruption committed by high-level officials usually combines the largescale, transnational theft of public funds with gross human rights violations.

The Report found 89% people in India thought corruption in government is a big problem. This percentage in China was 62, Indonesia 92, Japan 85, Bangladesh 72, Taiwan 91. Twenty to 39% of the public serviceusers said they paid a bribe in the previous 12 months. It says, across Asia, the use of personal connection to get ahead is a common practice. Besides paying bribes for the services they need, people use their family or social contacts to skip the line or gain quicker and better access to schools and hospitals and “speed up” government paperwork such as driving licence or birth certificates.

India was found to have the highest overall bribery rate (39%) and highest rate of citizens using personal connections (46%) among 17 Asian countries. India is followed by Indonesia (36%) and China (32%) in this matter. In Japan and Cambodia are stated to be nation where personal connections do not work at all.

Results show that police have the highest bribery rate (23%) and courts have a higher use of personal connecti