Corrupt Data

Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index is out today. Of the 146 countries they surveyed, 106 fall below the halfway mark on their ten point corrupt-to-clean scale.

Comments

[rst]

Makes me want to hock one big loogie of respect for this international community we're supposed to pay so much attention to.

And spit it down Annan's throat.

[Warren]

Australia in the top ten?
Canada less corrupt than the USA?
Really?

[Julian Sanchez]

Recall it's a corruption perceptions index. Which is probably actually not a terribly measure of corruption as a rough proxy. But for countries relatively close to each other, it's really just telling you that Australians and Canadians don't regard their governments as terribly corrupt.

[Nathan]

Actually they say they measure the perceptions of experts both from inside and outside the countries, and also of the general public, over the last three years, and combine the results. They also say that the opinions of natives and foreigners were found to correlate.

What do you think of the idea of forcing corporations to make their expenses transparent and imposing "tough sanctions against companies caught bribing" in foreign countries? Personally I'm in favour of it.

[James]

...with poor old Haiti at the bottom. I wonder if, having so little to steal, the dudes at the top reckon they have to take a greater percentage of it just to make a government career pay off at all. While in the better-off countries, officials can skim just a little and still make out quite well.

[Jason Bourne]

Nathan,

There are already laws against bribing officials in other countries. See the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.