SALON

Wednesday, Dec 5, 2012 2:15 PM UTC

Survey: Greece seen as most corrupt in EU

By

Topics: From the Wires,

BERLIN (AP) — The countries worst hit by the European financial crisis are also perceived as being among the most corrupt in the European Union, and those perceptions appear to be getting increasingly negative, an international watchdog said in a new report released Wednesday.

Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index shows Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece with the lowest scores in western Europe.

The index measures the perception of corruption in the public sector and not the financial sector, but Transparency’s Europe director Anne Koch told The Associated Press said the results clearly indicate that people in the countries worst hit by the crisis perceive corruption to be widespread.

“It seems to me to be quite blatantly obvious that the lack of transparency in public finances in these four countries has been reflected in the figures,” she said.

On a scale newly introduced for this year’s report, where 0 is “highly corrupt” and 100 is “very clean,” two-thirds of the 176 countries ranked scored below 50, which Transparency said indicates a widespread need for more openness in public institutions and more accountability for officials.

“Governments need to integrate anti-corruption actions into all public decision-making,” said Transparency International head Huguette Labelle. “Priorities include better rules on lobbying and political financing, making public spending and contracting more transparent and making public bodies more accountable to people.”

In other significant findings, Egypt fell from 112th last year to 118th place this year with a score of 32 — indicating concerns about the new government are even stronger some two years after the end of Hosni Mubarak’s rule.

“This week’s events in Cairo amply demonstrate that the endemic political issues that drove people to the streets in Egypt are still valid,” said Transparency’s Middle East and North Africa Director Christophe Wilcke. “Egypt’s score is another reminder to the country’s leaders that despite the revolution, they have to fight to corruption if they are to win the people’s trust and succeed in transitioning to democracy.”

The survey, which was first conducted in 1995, draws on a variety of sources that capture perceptions of corruption, including World Bank and World Economic Forum assessments, the African Development Bank’s governance ratings, and Transparency International’s own Bribe Payers Survey.

Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia were ranked the worst overall on this year’s list, all tied with a rating of just eight. Denmark, Finland and New Zealand were thought of as least corrupt with scores of 90.

Canada scored 84, Germany 79 and Japan and Britain tied at 74. The United States was rated 73, giving it 19th place, and France scored 71.

At the bottom of western European nations, Greece scored a 36, Italy 42, Portugal 63 and Spain 65. All four countries are mired in recession, and both Portugal and Greece have received EU bailouts. Other European Union countries also fared poorly, with Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Latvia and the Czech Republic all scoring less than 50.

The Greek numbers, which put it in 94th place on the ranking — 14 places below last year — stand out in particular, Koch said.

“Greece, of course, at place 94, is the lowest state in the European Union,” she said. “It’s ranked lower than countries like Colombia, Benin and Zambia … which gives you pause for thought.”

More By David Rising.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
185 points186 points | 7 comments
vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the persecuted late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
135 points136 points | comment
vote
Obstruction will ruin the GOP: Playing politics and abusing the system can excite the extremes, but it's a recipe for long-term political disaster
42 points43 points | 8 comments
vote
Loaded terminology like "entitlements" and "welfare" skews the debate and alters America. How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government.
23 points24 points | 16 comments
vote
Obstruction Will Ruin GOP - Playing politics & abusing the system can excite the extremes, but it's a recipe for long-term political disaster
15 points16 points | comment

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations