Indonesia rated most corrupt country in Asia

Indonesia rated most corrupt country in Asia

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia remains one of the most corrupt countries in the world, and certainly the most corrupt in Asia, according to Transparency International (TI) organization.

The country ranked 85th alongside Angola out of 90 countries surveyed by the Berlin-based nongovernmental organization for its corruption perception index, Reuters reported on Wednesday quoting the group's latest annual report.

The only other countries who performed worse are Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Yugoslavia and Nigeria which won the accolade as being the most corrupt country in the world.

Indonesia was 80th of 85 countries surveyed in 1999.

A change in method meant that the index, based on the views of business people, risk analysts and the public, was not strictly comparable to the last survey published in 1999.

But the overall conclusions remained similar.

The five Nordic countries, led by Finland, are among the eight cleanest administrative environments in the world, along with Singapore, New Zealand and Canada.

Transparency International Chairman Peter Eigen said in the annual report that: "Corruption takes many forms and is a universal cancer."

"The results of the index are sometimes unjust because they show up countries which are fighting against corruption at this moment," Eigen said as quoted by the Associated Press.

Executive director Jeremy Pope told a news conference in London on Wednesday that "the cost of corruption is viewed as a tax," he said, adding that it stifled foreign direct investment and international commerce.