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Transparency International: Systemic Corruption, Social Inequality Reinforce Each Other | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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No joke: Occupy Wall Street activists protest against capitalist corruption. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)


Brussels – Transparency International issued its 2016 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) report on Wednesday – the outcome raised concerns on how massive and pervasive corruption is in the public sector.

“The world systemic corruption and social inequality reinforce each other, leading to popular disenchantment with political establishments and providing a fertile ground for the rise of populist politicians,” mentioned the report.

69 percent of the 176 countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index 2016 scored below 50, on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean), exposing how massive and pervasive public sector corruption is around the world, according to the report.

“In too many countries, people are deprived of their basic needs and go to bed hungry every night because of corruption,” said José Ugaz, Chair of Transparency International.

Under the title “Populism is the wrong medicine”, the report said “People are fed up by too many politicians’ empty assurances to tackle corruption and many are turning towards populist politicians who promise to change the system and break the cycle of corruption and privilege. Yet this is likely to only exacerbate the issue.”

Denmark and New Zealand perform best with scores of 90, closely followed by Finland (89) and Sweden (88). “Although no country is free of corruption, the countries at the top share characteristics of open government, press freedom, civil liberties and independent judicial system,’ added the report.

Somalia has held the title as the world’s most corrupt country for the past ten years, with a score of 10 on the Corruption Perceptions Index 2016 — Second from the bottom is South Sudan with a score of 11 followed by North Korea (12 points) then Syria (13 points), revealed the report.