Rich nations attacked over corruption fight

The world's wealthiest -countries are failing to live up to their commitments to fight corruption, the leading international anti-graft watchdog claimed yesterday, as it released its annual national rankings of perceived corruption.

Transparency International, the Berlin-based campaign group, said a string of bribery scandals had raised concerns about western governments' resolve to tackle corporate graft and the influence of cash in politics.

The 180-country survey highlighted wider fears that with the qualified exception of the US and a few other nations, few of the leading economies were serious about tackling corruption.

Huguette Labelle, who chairs TI, said: "This sort of double standard is unacceptable and disregards international legal standards."

The "perceptions of corruption" index, which is widely tracked by governments, companies and development groups, showed Canada as the only Group of Seven leading industrialised nation in the top 10 "least corrupt". Germany was next best in 14th place, with France ranked 23rd and Italy languishing in 55th.

TI said some rich countries' rankings had fallen sharply year on year, with Britain - number 16 - singled out for "engrained complacency" over tackling -corruption.

The reputations of the world's leading economies have suffered a series of hits amid bribery investigations involving high-profile companies such as Britain's BAE Systems, Germany's Siemens and France's Alstom.

Campaigners say rich nations' failure to apply the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development anti-bribery convention could stoke a "race to the bottom" on corruption as western multinationals compete for business in poor countries with rivals from China and India.

Poor nations were again perceived as the most corrupt, which TI said represented a "humanitarian disaster" caused by a fatal link between poverty, failed institutions and graft.

Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand were perceived as among the least corrupt nations, each scoring 9.3 out of 10, while Somalia scored worst, with 1 point followed by Burma and Iraq with a score of 1.3.

The TI index is widely seen as a useful yardstick on corruption, although its basis on surveys of business perception rather than more objective measures means year-on-year movements of countries can be sharp and at times misleading.

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