Colombia anti-corruption efforts failing: Transparency International

[Judi Lynn]

Colombia anti-corruption efforts failing: Transparency International
Tuesday, 26 October 2010 13:11 Hannah Stone

Transparency International says Colombia's fight against corruption is stagnating, after the country was ranked 78th of 178 countries in the organization's 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index, a drop of three places from 2009.

The NGO's index brings together a number of surveys of country experts and business leaders to provide a measure the perception of public sector corruption in each country, focusing on bribery, the payment of kickbacks, and embezzlement.

Colombia scores 3.5 in this year's index, where 10 is "highly clean" and 0 is "highly corrupt," a drop from its score of 3.7 in 2009. This is the lowest level since 2000, when the country scored 3.2.

In the last ten years the corruption perception score has hovered between 3.6 and 4.0, according to Transparencia por Colombia (TPC), the organization's Colombia chapter.

TPC director Elisabeth Ungar said in a statement following the release of the report that the level of corruption in the country is critical; "It's like having a permanent fever and not doing anything about it."

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/12583-transparency-international-corruption-perception.html