Indonesia ranks high on corruption index

Indonesia ranks high on corruption index

WASHINGTON (Reuters): Indonesia and other countries which won
billions of dollars of international loans are seen as among the
most corrupt nations in the world, according to a survey released
on Tuesday.

The 1998 Corruption Perceptions Index from corruption watchdog
Transparency International gives just one country, Denmark, a
perfect 10, showing that investors, risk analysts and the public
think Denmark and its leadership are clean.

"The 1998 CPI score relates to perceptions of the degree of
corruption as seen by business people, risk analysts and the
general public," Transparency International said. "It ranges
between 10 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt)."

But well over half of the 85 countries on the list scored less
than 5.5 -- the number which Transparency International views as
pointing to a problem for the government concerned.

"It seems to me that any country that has a score of 6 or 5.5
or lower clearly has a huge problem," said Frank Vogl, vice
president of the Germany-based institution, which has issued its
surveys annually since 1985.

Countries scoring particularly badly in the 1998 list include
Indonesia, ranked 80th with a score of 2, Russia, ranked 76th
with a score of 2.4 and Pakistan, which shares the 71st spot with
Latvia in the Baltics, with a score of 2.7.

In last place was Cameroon in West Africa, with a score of
1.4.

Vogl stressed that the index did not actually measure
corruption, but concentrated on the perception of corruption,
which he defined as "the abuse of public office for private
gain."

"We are not measuring corruption, we are measuring the
perception of it. We do not have enough data to say these
perceptions are accurate," he said.

Russia, the largest country in the world, is also the biggest
borrower from the International Monetary Fund, although the fate
of its latest multi-billion dollar lending program is in doubt as
the fund assesses the print-and-spend policies of the new
government of Yevgeny Primakov.

The IMF promised Indonesia more than $10 billion last year and
has paid out just over half that. The two sides agreed to a new
policy plan this month, clearing the way for a further payment,
probably after the IMF's annual meetings next month.

Vogl said Transparency's next aim was to develop a Bribery
Propensity Index, which would look at which countries were the
homes to "bribe-paying corporations."

"It will be a parallel index which measures the perception of
where bribery is coming from" he said, noting that the United
States was a rare example of a country with clear laws
criminalizing bribery abroad.

"If bribery is criminalized in many countries, if there is
enforcement and if there is monitoring, then we will see a change
in corporate behavior," he said.

The 1998 report is the most extensive Transparency
International survey to date. The previous survey, released last
year, ranked 52 countries, putting Denmark at the top and Nigeria
at the bottom.

It is drawn up on the basis of a dozen surveys carried out
over the last three years.