[Admin :Dinesh]
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Denmark is the least corrupt
country in the world, according to
the 201 Corruption Index by
Transparency International
According to the Corruption Perceptions
Index 2012 , Denmark is the least corrupt
country. The index ranks countries on a
scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very
clean). No country has a perfect score and two-thirds of
countries score below 50.
The organisation behind the index, Transparency
International, explains that the index shows that still many
societies and governments need to give a much higher
priority to corruption.
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WHAT MAKES NEW ZEALAND, DENMARK,
FINLAND, SWEDEN AND OTHERS “CLEANER”
THAN MOST COUNTRIES?
New Zealand, Denmark, Finland and Sweden have been
consistently ranked at the top of the Corruption Perceptions Index
and are perceived to be the least corrupt of all the countries
surveyed
They are not perfect – still falling short of the target 10 out of 10 on
the index – but many still want to know about how these countries
have managed to contain corruption.
Beside law enforcement, there is a broad
consensus that fighting corruption
involves public participation and
transparency mechanisms such as
disclosure of information.
Preliminary findings from upcoming
country studies for Finland, Denmark and
Sweden indicate that this “integrity
system” function relatively well in these countries.
But what makes their “ national integrity systems ” more effective?
Beside a strong commitment to anti-corruption by political leaders,
Finland, Sweden, Denmark and to a certain extent New Zealand all
share a common set of characteristics that are typically correlated
with lower levels of corruption.
Recent studies show that freedom of the press is positively
correlated with control of corruption in well established
democracies. Finland, Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand all have
high GDP per capita, low inequality rates, literacy rates close to 100
%, and prioritise human right issues (e.g. gender equality, freedom
of information).
Crucially, they all perform well in terms of government openness
and effectiveness.
This does not fully explain the good performance in fighting
corruption. A hundred years ago, before their transition to good
governance, Denmark and Sweden were not the darlings of the anti-
corruption world. For example, the Swedish principle of public
access to official documents is one of the oldest established in the
world, dates back to 1766.
Well performing countries typically have a
long tradition of government openness,
civic activism and social trust, with strong
transparency and accountability
mechanism in place allowing citizens to
monitor their politicians and hold them
accountable for their actions and
decisions.
So what works?
disclosure of budget information closes the door to waste and
misappropriation of public funds. Therefore, countries should
seek to promote information disclosure as well as enhance
citizens’ participation throughout the budget process. The Open
Budget Index shows that Sweden allows citizens to assess how
their government is managing public funds.
Codes of conduct for public servants. Denmark obliges
ministers to monthly publish information on their spending
travel and gifts
Legal framework criminalising a wide range of corruption related
abuses and an independent and efficient judiciary.
The good news is that many countries can copy the transparency/
accountability route to good governance. A recent study looking at
the Finnish case concludes that, contrary to the Singapore’s top
down approach to anti-corruption, which is economically
unsustainable for most countries, this bottom-up model based on
public trust, transparency and social capital is affordable,
transferable and adaptable to very different political contexts.
It is important to point out that these countries still face challenges
e.g protective legislation for whistleblowers, corruption risk in
public procurement , effective political (party ) finance regulation etc
[Admin:Dinesh]
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