INDIA AMONG 55 CORRUPT COUNTRIES!!!
NEW DELHI, OCT. 20. This is one arena where India is ranked among the "best" in the world, but for wrong reasons.
Still retaining its title of being in the big league of the most corrupt, India is among 55 of the 106 countries where corruption is rampant, according to the Corruption Perception Index 2004 Report released by Transparency International India here today.
While India ranks 90 in the list of 106 countries, which includes the developed as well as the developing world, it is among the 55 countries that top the corruption scale. India shares this ranking with Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, Tanzania and Russia. The title of the most corrupt country has been claimed jointly by Bangladesh and Haiti.
Once again, Finland has been judged the "cleanest" country.
The Corruption Perception Index only provides the business community's "perception'' of the level of corruption in a country. For the common man, the situation was probably much worse, said the chairman of Transparency International India, R.H Tahiliani.
The kind of corruption the ordinary person faces in India is something that is not even recognised in the developed countries, he said.
Corruption prevalent in Government agencies is at the highest level. "We had conducted a survey in 2000 where we went house-to-house to evaluate seven public utilities in six cities to see how ordinary people deal with corruption. We are doing another such survey with the Centre for Media Studies that will provide a transparent benchmark for corruption," he said.
General idea
Though the Corruption Perception Index does not give the complete picture, it provides a reasonable idea of the level of corruption in the country.
Bribery in Government procurement-related contracts and other activities cost Indian taxpayers a whopping $7,000 million, according to the report.
It is complied on the basis of 15 surveys by 12 independent institutions including the World Bank, the World Economic Forum and Columbia University.
It grades countries on corruption on a scale of 0 to 10 — the cleanest being 10 and the most corrupt being 0.
India has been given a score of 2.8 in 2004, which is a marginal improvement over its 2002 score of 2.7.
Second study
The findings of another survey on the National Integrity System, conducted by the former head of the Department of Political Science, Delhi University, R.B. Jain, and the former Director General of Police, P.S. Bawa, was released. This survey examined accountability, integrity and transparency in the functioning of government institutions.
"We found that corruption is a part of culture. We found that what is lacking is political will and have made a number of recommendations, including extending the jurisdiction of the Central Bureau of Investigation throughout the country," said Prof. Jain.
``We also want to encourage and protect whistleblowers.''
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