26 October 1999
(Bribe-payers index publicized for first time) (1240)
By Phillip Kurata
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Transparency International (TI) has published a list of
19 major exporting countries ranked in the order that their
corporations are perceived to be paying bribes to foreign officials.
The first Bribe Payers Perceptions Index (BPI) shows "a disturbing
picture of the degree to which leading exporting countries are using
corrupt practices," TI Chairman Peter Eigen said in a statement issued
from TI's Berlin headquarters October 26.
TI is a non-governmental organization dedicated to fighting corruption
in international business. It defines corruption as the abuse of
public office for private gain.
Eigen appealed to the governments of the exporting countries to take
determined action to stop their multinational corporations from
bribing foreign officials. He appealed to the corporations to adopt
effective anti-corruption programs.
The United States ranked ninth on the BPI with a score of 6.2. Sweden
was perceived as the country whose corporations are perceived to be
the cleanest, followed closely by Canada and Australia. China,
including Hong Kong, was seen as the home country of corporations that
practice the highest levels of foreign bribery.
"The U.S. ranking is a call for redoubled efforts. We need to find out
why the United States did not rank higher, even though U.S. companies
have been subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for over 20
years," Fritz Heimann, chairman of the U.S. chapter of TI, said at a
news conference in Washington October 26.
The United States lobbied for several decades to persuade the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to adopt
a multilateral treaty banning bribery of foreign officials. So far, 18
of the 34 signatories of the treaty have implemented it.
Heimann said the BPI provides an important yardstick for measuring the
effectiveness of the OECD convention, which went into effect this
year. He said he will meet with U.S. corporate supporters and U.S.
government agencies in the coming weeks to plan the next steps in the
fight against foreign bribery.
"The U.S. ranking suggests that there are limitations to a unilateral
effort to deal with pervasive international corruption. TI has
strongly supported the OECD Convention because a multilateral approach
is required to change the rules for international competition,"
Heimann added.
Gallup International conducted the TI survey in 14 emerging market
countries in Asia, Latin America, Europe and Africa. Those countries
account for more than 60 percent of total imports of all emerging
market economies. China was not on that list, although it is the
emerging world's first target for foreign direct investment.
"This is primarily due to the difficulties involved in commissioning a
survey on this topic in China," TI said.
The information was obtained by submitting detailed questions to more
than 770 senior executives at major companies, accounting firms,
chambers of commerce, large commercial banks, and law firms.
The questions concerned the propensity of corporations to bribe senior
public officials.
Released at the same time as the BPI was TI's fifth annual Corruption
Perceptions Index. The CPI ranks 99 countries according to the
perceived likelihood of their government officials to accept bribes. A
CPI score of 10 indicates "highly clean" while a score of
Denmark has retained its top CPI ranking with an essentially
corruption-free score of 10, followed by Finland in second place and
New Zealand and Sweden tied for third.
Similarly, Cameroon remained at the bottom of the list as the country
where government officials are perceived to be the readiest to accept
bribes. Azerbaijan, Indonesia, and Nigeria came close to receiving
that dubious distinction.
The 1999 CPI surveys 99 countries, a record. The 1998 CPI dealt with
85 countries and the 1997 CPI, with 52.
TI points out that its indices are imperfect instruments for measuring
corruption, but nevertheless potent weapons in the fight to clean up
international business.
"Because bribery is always conducted in secret, it is impossible to
get hard data. Thus, surveys of corruption must use the perceptions of
knowledgeable respondents," Heimann said.
TI Chairman Eigen says it would be inaccurate to conclude that the
countries at the bottom of the CPI are the most corrupt.
"We would caution that it would be wrong to call these countries the
most corrupt in the world. Our index covers more countries than ever
before, but we just do not have sufficient credible data to include
over 80 other countries," Eigen said.
TI says its CPI rankings are based on 17 polls and surveys taken
during the past three years by 10 independent organizations. The
people questioned include residents, both locals and expatriates,
business elites, the public at large, and scholars, who are largely
non-residents.
TI says the 1999 CPI combines assessments from the past three years to
reduce abrupt variations in scoring that might result from high-level
political scandals.
"Such events tend to affect public perceptions, but they may be a poor
reflection of actual levels of corruption," TI said.
The TI website -- http://www.transparency.de/documents/ -- has the
complete reports and explanations of the 1999 CPI and BPI.
Following are TI's 1999 CPI and BPI:
(begin indices)
1999 Transparency International Bribe Payers Perceptions Index (BPI)
Ranking 19 Leading Exporters
Rank Country Score
1 Sweden 8.3
2 Australia 8.1
Canada 8.1
4 Austria 7.8
5 Switzerland 7.7
6 Netherlands 7.4
7 United Kingdom 7.2
8 Belgium 6.8
9 Germany 6.2
United States 6.2
11 Singapore 5.7
12 Spain 5.3
13 France 5.2
14 Japan 5.1
15 Malaysia 3.9
16 Italy 3.7
17 Taiwan 3.5
18 South Korea 3.4
19 China 3.1
(including
Hong Kong)
1999 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)
Country Country 1999 CPI
Rank Score
1 Denmark 10.0
2 Finland 9.8
3 New Zealand 9.4
Sweden 9.4
5 Canada 9.2
Iceland 9.2
7 Singapore 9.1
8 Netherlands 9.0
9 Norway 8.9
Switzerland 8.9
11 Luxembourg 8.8
12 Australia 8.7
13 United Kingdom 8.6
14 Germany 8.0
15 Hong Kong 7.7
Ireland 7.7
17 Austria 7.6
18 USA 7.5
19 Chile 6.9
20 Israel 6.8
21 Portugal 6.7
22 France 6.6
Spain 6.6
24 Botswana 6.1
25 Japan 6.0
Slovenia 6.0
27 Estonia 5.7
28 Taiwan 5.6
29 Belgium 5.3
Namibia 5.3
31 Hungary 5.2
32 Costa Rica 5.1
Malaysia 5.1
34 South Africa 5.0
Tunisia 5.0
36 Greece 4.9
Mauritius 4.9
38 Italy 4.7
39 Czech Republic 4.6
40 Peru 4.5
41 Jordan 4.4
Uruguay 4.4
43 Mongolia 4.3
44 Poland 4.2
45 Brazil 4.1
Malawi 4.1
Morocco 4.1
Zimbabwe 4.1
49 El Salvador 3.9
50 Jamaica 3.8
Lithuania 3.8
South Korea 3.8
53 Slovak Republic 3.7
54 Philippines 3.6
Turkey 3.6
56 Mozambique 3.5
Zambia 3.5
58 Belarus 3.4
China 3.4
Latvia 3.4
Mexico 3.4
Senegal 3.4
63 Bulgaria 3.3
Egypt 3.3
Ghana 3.3
Macedonia 3.3
Romania 3.3
68 Guatemala 3.2
Thailand 3.2
70 Nicaragua 3.1
71 Argentina 3.0
72 Colombia 2.9
India 2.9
74 Croatia 2.7
75 Cote d'Ivoire 2.6
Moldova 2.6
Ukraine 2.6
Venezuela 2.6
Vietnam 2.6
80 Armenia 2.5
Bolivia 2.5
82 Ecuador 2.4
Russia 2.4
84 Albania 2.3
Georgia 2.3
Kazakhstan 2.3
87 Kyrgyz Republic 2.2
Pakistan 2.2
Uganda 2.2
90 Kenya 2.0
Paraguay 2.0
Yugoslavia 2.0
93 Tanzania 1.9
94 Honduras 1.8
Uzbekistan 1.8
96 Azerbaijan 1.7
Indonesia 1.7
98 Nigeria 1.6
99 Cameroon 1.5
(end indices)
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.)