Graft problem growing fast

Watchdog’s report finds Greece has slipped many places down the international corruption ranking

Greece needs to take “immediate and sustained efforts” to tackle corruption, the graft watchdog Transparency International said yesterday after its annual report measuring the perception of graft in 180 countries indicated that the country had slipped some way down the rankings.

Transparency International’s 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index found Greece to be the 71st least-corrupt country surveyed with a score of 3.8 out of 10.

This represents a substantial deterioration compared to last year when Greece was ranked 57th with a score of 4.7 out of 10.

A country’s score indicates the degree of public sector corruption as perceived by businesspeople and country analysts and ranges between 10 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt).

Whereas Greece was the lowest-ranked eurozone country in 2008, this year it is at the bottom of the entire European Union list of 27 member states, with a rating equal to that of Bulgaria and Romania, and below countries such as Botswana and Tunisia.

Greece experienced one of the biggest declines since 2008 along with Bahrain, Slovakia, Malta and Iran.

The head of the Greek branch of Transparency International (TI), Costas Bakouris, said “systemic weaknesses” that were exposed by a series of recent scandals, such as the property exchange between the state and the Vatopedi Monastery, were to blame for Greece’s low ranking. “It proves that the effort to improve the situation must continue more intensely,” he said.

TI representative Aris Sygros said that the delay in court cases being heard and verdicts being delivered was having a negative impact on the country’s image as far as combating corruption is concerned.

The watchdog added that Greece’s poor score showed that EU membership alone does not guarantee that graft will be tackled.

According to the index Somalia is perceived as the world’s most corrupt country followed by Afghanistan and Myanmar. The world’s least corrupt country is New Zealand, followed by Denmark and Singapore.

“Stemming corruption requires strong oversight by parliaments, a well-performing judiciary, independent and properly resourced audit and anti-corruption agencies, vigorous law enforcement, transparency in public budgets, revenue and aid flows, as well as space for independent media and a vibrant civil society,” said TI chairperson Huguette Labelle.