Opinions | Columnists
Fighting corruption in the region
The report issued last week Transparency International (TI), paints a bleak picture of the level of corruption in the Arab world.
- By Duraid Al Baik, Foreign Editor
- Published: 00:33 September 30, 2007
- Image Credit: Illustration: Luis Vazquez/Gulf News
The report issued last week Transparency International (TI), paints a bleak picture of the level of corruption in the Arab world. Corruption levels increased in almost all Arab countries according to the index, including in countries that used to do comparatively well in the corruption perception scale.
The annual index indicates that corrupt practices have increased in many Arab countries in the past five years. The report calls on countries plagued with corruption to act swiftly in order to address the problem before it wrecks their social and political foundations.
The report, along with the Failed States Index (FSI) published in Washington in July this year, provides clear evidence from two different non-governmental organisations of the critical situation in the region. Both reports urge states to come up with emergency plans to fight corruption and to ensure an effective use of the limited resources available to people in this part of the world.
Eight Arab countries out of 21 were listed among the top 60 failed states in the world. The list includes Sudan, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Mauritania.
The Failed States Index (FSI) has been issued for the third consecutive year by the Washington-based Fund for Peace. The index is meant to assess sources of weakness in 177 states and monitor sources of violence in the world. The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) has been issued by the Berlin-based TI for 13 consecutive years and covers 180 countries around the globe.
The two indexes suggest that ignoring the situation in countries ranked low in the scales, as is the case of most Arab countries, would lead to even more complications which, in turn, invite social and political unrest.
TI found that poorer countries, which feel the crunch of corruption more than the rich ones, are in great need of global assistance to fight the phenomenon. "Corruption is no longer a local issue; it is an international epidemic that warrants global action, exactly like fighting terrorism," TI stated.
Responsibility
"International cooperation against corruption is not just an ethical stand on the part of developed nations. Governments in industrialised countries largely bear the responsibility of enticing corruption in developing countries through bribes paid by international companies to officials in poor countries in order to secure contracts," the report said.
The report criticised the tolerance shown by the governments of industrialised countries towards those bribing foreign officials, which has created a fertile environment for the rise of corruption in the developing world. It said: "In spite of their international obligation to fight the phenomenon, governments in the developed world showed great leniency with companies paying bribes to officials in the developing world in order to secure businesses in these countries."
Iraq represents a blunt example on how the developed world helped in spreading corruption instead of joining hands to fight it. Iraq has become more rotten with corruption under the occupation of a supposedly democratic state. Iraq's rank in the corruption index declined from 129 in 2004 to 178 in the current year. It scored 2.1 marks out of 10 in the CPI scale in 2004 when it was first was covered by the survey, but declined to 1.5 this year. This is big shame, not only for the Iraqi government that has replaced a dictatorship, but for the US administration, under which corruption has grown and spread like a cancer.
This does not mean that governments in developing countries bear no responsibility in the war against corruption. Governments in Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Mauritania, Comoros, Egypt, Djibouti, Algeria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia, Kuwait, Jordan and Oman - all falling under 5 CPI - have to act swiftly before corruption gets out of hand in these countries.
Even the three Arab countries that ranked equal or above 5 CPI need to improve their system or face falling in the dangerous zone. It is worth noting that the state of corruption has deteriorated in two out of three states ranked above the line. UAE (5.7) and Bahrain (5) were (5.8) and (6.2) respectively in 2005. A slight decrease, but it means that the two countries have slipped in their battle against corruption in the past two years. Qatar was the only Arab country that improved its CPI from 5.9 in 2005 to 6 in this year.
Peter Eigen, chairman of TI, once said: "Corruption in large-scale public projects is daunting obstacle to sustainable development, and results in a major loss of public fund needed for education, healthcare and poverty alleviation, both in developed and developing countries."
Pauline H. Barker, President of the Fund for Peace organisation which issues the FSI said Arab states have great potential to enhance their performance and remove their nations from the group of failed states. Failing to do so will expose the region to chaos - political, economic and social.
As pointed out by the two studies, improvement of the judicial system is essential if developing countries are to manage the recovery of stolen assets. Governments must introduce anti-money laundering measures to eradicate safe havens for stolen assets. Banking centres should explore the development of uniform, expedited procedures for the identification, freezing and repatriation of the proceeds of corruption.
Share this article
More from Columnists
More from Opinions
Popular in Opinions
-
Opinions
Speak Your Mind: Cyberbullying
How can we protect our children from being Cyber bullied?
Opinion Editor's choice
-
Turkey is thinking creatively
Ankara is seeking peace and reconciliation in the Middle East, but has not turned its back on the West
-
Abdullah may see crisis on horizon
Could it be that the king of Jordan dissolved parliament because he believes a regional war might be in the offing?
-
More action needed to nab murderers
Those guilty of involvement in Philippines massacre deserve the most severe penalty
