THE country’s ranking in global corruption improved during the past three years, but the country is still tagged as “highly corrupt” among 178 countries, according to a Transparency International (TI) survey.
In its 2010 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released on Tuesday, TI said that the Philippines was ranked 134th with a score of 2.4, better than its 139th ranking in 2009.
In 2008, the country was ranked 141st with a score of 2.3.
Despite the improvement in overall ranking, the Philippines is still considered as a “highly corrupt” country in the world along with Kenya, Laos, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Republic of Congo, Uganda, Timor Leste, Lebanon, Solomon Islands, Mali, Mongolia, Niger, Libya, Iran, Nepal, Yemen, Cambodia, Venezuela, Honduras, Syria, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Benin, Gabon, Indonesia, Kosovo, Kazakhstan and Modova, among others.
It also continued to lag behind most of its neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, among them Malaysia, 56th; Thailand, 78th; Indonesia, 110th and Vietnam, 116th.
Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore tied for first place in the ranking with identical scores of 9.3.
The 2010 CPI measures the degree to which public-sector corruption is perceived to exist in 178 countries around the world.
It scores countries on a scale from 10 (very clean) to 0 (highly corrupt).
The 2010 results are drawn from 13 surveys and assessments published between January 2009 and September 2010.
This year’s index ranked 178 countries by their perceived levels of public-sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys.
All sources measure the overall extent of corruption (frequency and/or size of bribes) in the public and political sectors.
The CPI helps to highlight the propensity of domestic corruption and its damaging influence.
TI defines corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.
“These results signal that significantly greater efforts must go into strengthening governance across the globe. With the livelihoods of so many at stake, governments’ commitments to anti-corruption, transparency and accountability must speak through their actions. Good governance is an essential part of the solution to the global policy challenges governments face today,” Huguette Labelle, the chairman of Transparency International, said.
Labelle added that allowing corruption to continue is unacceptable, and that too many poor and vulnerable people continue to suffer its consequences around the world.
“We need to see more enforcement of existing rules and laws. There should be nowhere to hide for the corrupt or their money,” he said.
To fully address these challenges, TI said that governments need to integrate anti-corruption measures in all spheres, from the responses to the financial crisis and climate change to commitments by the international community to eradicate poverty.
The report said that unstable governments, often with a legacy of conflict, continue to dominate the bottom rungs of the CPI.
Afghanistan and Myanmar share second to last place with a score of 1.4, with Somalia coming in last with a score of 1.1.
“The results of this year’s CPI show again that corruption is a global problem that must be addressed in global policy reforms,” Labelle said.
TI said that the 2010 CPI covers two countries fewer than last year’s edition.
The slight change resulted from individual sources adjusting the range of countries they assess.
These adjustments in coverage made it possible to include Kosovo for the first time, but led to the exclusion of Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname, for which only two sources of information were available this year. The Manila Times
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