LONDON, 18 April 2005 — In a devastating expose of corruption in the global construction industry and in post-conflict reconstruction such as in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia and Iraq, Transparency International (TI) in its latest “Global Corruption Report 2005” has launched what it calls “a baseline (benchmark) for governments” through “Minimum Standards for Public Contracting” which should apply to both public works; public-private financed projects; and others.
TI urges urgent and concrete reforms to combat corruption in the global construction sector and has published a comprehensive list of recommendations as part of the above Minimum Standards. These recommendations are in the form of “actions” for public and private clients; for construction and engineering companies; for international agencies, export credit agencies (ECAs) and banks; for trade and professional associations; for auditors; for shareholders; for governments; and for civil society organizations such as NGOs (Non-governmental Organizations) and other pressure groups.
Corruption in the construction industry is a special focus of the “Global Corruption Report 2005”, which contains the now well-established Corruption Perceptions Index, and a cornucopia of other information, ranging from measuring corruption in different scenarios and societies; governance in under-performing states; bribery in news coverage; trust and corruption; corruption in transition economies; transparency and accountability in the public sector in the Arab region; budget transparency; corruption and crime; gender and corruption; and corruption, pollution and economic development.
The report should be essential reading to all governments; international agencies; the public and private sectors; the allied professions; scholars; theologians; consumers; the general public; and other segments of civil society. Why? Because corruption impacts negatively on every aspect of society — governance; the economy; cost of capital; institutions; development; and usually affects the poor most adversely.
Bangladesh once again has the dubious sobriquet of being “the most corrupt country in the world”, according to TI’s Global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for 2004, now in its tenth year and which surveyed 145 countries. The only consolation is that in 2004 Bangladesh shared the dishonor with Haiti.
Finland and New Zealand maintain their reputations as the least corrupt countries in the world. For the Muslim countries, the situation could not be more revealing. Of the 30 most corrupt countries in the CPI, some sixteen are member countries of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Conference).
As Professor Johann Graf Lambsdorff, Professor of Economics at University of Passau in Germany and the director of statistical work on the CPI, stresses “the index assembles expert perceptions vis-à-vis corruption. In an area where objective data is not available, such an approach helps our understanding of real levels of corruption. That is why many economists, political scientists and sociologists use the CPI as a starting point for investigating the causes and consequences of corruption in a cross-section of countries. Since the first publication of the CPI in 1995, there has been a wave of research publications based on the CPI and our knowledge is still expanding rapidly.”
Oman and the UAE, ranked at 29 in the CPI, are the least corrupt Muslim countries; followed by Bahrain (34th); Jordan (37th); Qatar (38th); and Malaysia and Tunisia (39th).
The CPI index is essentially a subjective index — based on perceptions of so-called well-informed sources. The methodology while sufficing for now, needs urgent reviewing and improvement.
If not checked, corruption, says TI, becomes institutionalized and thus shapes economies; with corrupt government officials steering social and economic development toward large-scale capital-intensive projects which provide fertile ground for corruption; and very often environmentally destructive projects.
