News
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Pakistan jumps up the corruption index* Transparency International report shows Pakistan up to 34th from 42nd position in corruption list
* Somalia tops list of corrupt nations followed by Afghanistan, Myanmar
Staff Report
KARACHI: Pakistan’s Corruption Perceptions Index declined to 2.3 in 2010 against 2.4 in 2009, and out of 178 countries, its ranking as most corrupt country jumped from 42 in 2009 to 34 in 2010.
This was announced by Transparency International Pakistan Chairman Syed Adil Gilani, while launching the Corruption Prescriptions Index (CPI) in a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday.
The 2010 CPI shows that nearly three-quarter of the 178 countries in the index scored below five, on a scale from zero to 10 – with zero perceived as highly corrupt, indicating a serious corruption problem. In the last two years, there have been unprecedented cases of corruption involving billions of rupees in public sector organisations, which, under law, should have been taken up by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the chairman added. He said the government lacked political will to fight corruption, which had resulted in the Supreme Court taking suo motu action against mega corruption in the NICL, Pakistan Steels and rental power plants.
The 2010 CPI report reveals that corruption in Pakistan is increasing, while it is decreasing in Bangladesh, which ranked as the most corrupt country in 2001, 2002 and 2003. Its ranking in 2010 has dropped to 39 in the list of most corrupt countries.
Reduced corruption has paid dividends to Bangladesh whose annual GDP growth last year was over five percent, while Pakistan’s was near 2.4. Delay in formation of an independent accountability commission by parliament might aggravate the situation.
The direct impact of increased corruption could be witnessed in the rise in prices of food commodities, which according to latest official figures from the Federal Bureau of Statistics, had increased up to 120 percent in the last one year – sugar increasing from Rs 54 to Rs 80 per kilogramme, pulses from Rs 50 to Rs 110 per kg, and eggs from Rs 35 to Rs 60 per dozen. Foreign direct investment for 2009-2010 dropped to $2.21 billion from $3.71 billion in 2008-2009, and in July-Sept 2010 it further dropped to $387.4 million.
Foreign debt on Pakistan increased from $40 billion in 1999 to $46 billion in 2008, whereas in the last two years it increased to $53.5 billion.
According to the report, Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore are tied for the first place with equal scores of 9.3. However, Afghanistan and Myanmar share the second-last place with 1.4 points, with Somalia at the last spot with a score of 1.1.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk