RI rated Asia's most corrupt

RI rated Asia's most corrupt

SINGAPORE (Reuter): Indonesia has been rated as the most
corrupt country in Asia, but the problem is increasing in almost
every country in the region, a report said yesterday.

The Asian Intelligence report by the Hong Kong-based Political
and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd (PERC) said the survey of
expatriate business executives in the region showed that only the
Philippines and Singapore were seen making progress against
corruption last year.

The report did no give a timeframe for the survey, but 280
executives were surveyed and asked to grade each country on a
scale of 0-10. Zero being the best grade and 10 the worst.

"Our survey rated the problem of corruption in Indonesia as
being the worst in Asia," the report, made available yesterday,
said. Indonesia had the worst score of more than 8.0.

"A series of high-profile cases highlighted the extent to
which politically influential individuals were able to arrange
matters to their own financial benefit. Growing nepotism ... was
thus probably equated with corruption" in the survey, it said.

One case cited was the long-running struggle by influential
companies "to get a piece of the action" in Indonesia's Busang
gold field being developed by Canada's Bre-X Minerals Ltd and
Freeport-McMoran.

Busang is now under a deep cloud after Bre-X admitted last
week that the potential reserves, which it had reported in
February at 71 million ounces, appear to have been overstated.

Another country cited in the PERC report was South Korea.

"Our survey indicates that the magnitude of the problem is
perceived to be worse than in Thailand and on a similar scale to
India and China," it said.

The collapse of Hanbo Steel Co Ltd and the indictment of
several members of the ruling New Korea Party in the scandal "has
seriously tarnished President Kim Young Sam's `Mr. Clean' image,"
it added.

In the case of China and India, the report said it found it
difficult to distinguish where the problem was worse.

While India's free-wheeling press and open democratic system
allows corruption to get more public exposure, the closed system
in China allows officials "to hide their dirty laundry."

"In both cases, however, corruption is a formidable problem,"
declared the PERC.

The survey did not include any other countries in the Indian
subcontinent. Pakistan was found in a survey last year by Berlin-
based Transparency International (TI) to be the world's second
most corrupt place to do business after Nigeria.

Corruption is coming up in Malaysia especially after Prime
Minister Mahathir Mohamad's emotional speech last year during the
congress of the ruling UMNO party about corruption and money
politics.

On the other hand, Singapore is still seen as being tough on
corruption, while the Philippines "has tried to make its
operations more transparent and graft has been reduced."

"The Philippines has gone from being the symbol of big-time
corruption in Asia to being seen as one of the countries in the
region genuinely seeking to clean up its act," the PERC said.

The PERC said an effective campaign against corruption
"requires an institutional framework that is lacking in many
countries...and can take years to develop."

"Foreign businessmen operating in Asia are increasingly
conscious of the need to develop such institutions and, when they
are in place, to use them effectively," the report concluded.

In order of cleanest to most corrupt, were Singapore, Hong
Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, South
Korea, Vietnam, China, India and Indonesia.