Saturday 10 December 2011

Corruption and Anti-corruption: statistics and milestones



“For too long, the demands of citizens for more accountable government have met promises for change, but too little action.
From this anti-corruption day on, we must judge commitments to good behaviour by the transparency and accountability with which leaders of government and business conduct their affairs.”
Huguette Labelle, Chair of the Board, Transparency International
Read the full statement here.
Fighting corruption has been high on the agenda in 2011. People have taken to the streets to demand accountability from their leaders. Additional countries have adopted anti-corruption legislation. More people are coming forward to report corruption.
However, the cost of corruption to economies and societies remains high.
Corruption & Anti-corruption in figures
  • One-fifth: estimated proportion of the income of poor Mexican families spent on petty bribes.
  • Five per cent: amount of Malawi’s economy the World Bank estimates is income derived from corruption.
  • 15 per cent: proportion of respondents to a national household survey inGuatemala that reported that they paid a bribe when trying to (re)connect to the public water system.
  • 30-40 per cent: countries which have a higher risk of civil war because of weak governance, control of corruption and rule of law, according to the World Bank.
  • 73 per cent: proportion of countries on the 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index that score less than 5 out of ten.
  • 15 years: longest prison sentence ever handed down in a U.S. foreign bribery case that involved the former president of a telecoms company in Florida.
  • US $6 million: value of the 11 sports cars belonging to the leader of Equatorial Guinea confiscated in Paris in September, a result of Transparency International France’s legal action on stolen assets.
  • US $37 billion: Libyan assets frozen in the United States. More on stolen assetshere.
  • US $57.2 billion: amount Egypt lost to illicit financial activities and official government corruption from 2000 to 2008. Global Financial Integrity says Egypt is losing more than US $6 billion per year.
  • $160 billion: amount of money lost by Greece in unrecorded payments through its balance transfers over the last decadeaccording to Global Financial Integrity. Tax arrangements cost between €300 and €15.000, TI Greece finds.
Anti-corruption milestones in 2011
14 January – Public anger following the suicide of bribery victim Mohamed Bouazizi causes Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down after 23 years in power

11 February - Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is deposed by popular uprising which ends his 30-year hardline rule

25 February – China passes amendments to its corruption legislation that makes foreign corrupt practices illegal

13 April – Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak is detained and his two sons are being held in prison as officials investigate allegations of corruption and abuse of power

12 May – India ratifies the UN Convention Against Corruption

25 May – Russia is asked to join the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention

5 April – Indian activist Ana Hazare begins an anti-corruption hunger strike to pressure the governments to fulfil anti-corruption commitments as envisaged in the Lok Pal Bill. Nation-wide protests erupt to support his cause.

1 July – UK Bribery Act comes into force

28 August – Ana Hazare ends another fast, after the Indian Government promised to work towards devising an effective anti-corruption law (Lokpal bill).

7 September – thousand of people join anti-corruption demonstrations in Brazil
Read about what Transparency International has done to fight corruption in 2011 here

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