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.