http://www.mysinchew.com/node/31617

Stamp out bank secrecy, corruption watchdog says

 2009-11-17 18:03

BERLIN, Nov 17 (AFP) - Graft watchdog Transparency International hit
out at rich countries over shady banking practices on Tuesday as it
published its annual rankings naming and shaming the world's most
corrupt countries.

"Corrupt money must not find safe haven. It is time to put an end to
excuses," said the Berlin-based group's head Huguette Labelle.

"Even industrialised countries cannot be complacent: the supply of
bribery and the facilitation of corruption often involve businesses
based in their countries," the report said.

In the wake of the financial crisis, the Group of 20 (G20)
industrialised countries turned up the heat on tax havens, targeting
rich countries with long-held banking secrecy laws like Liechtenstein
and Switzerland.

But Labelle said extra efforts were imperative, calling for more
bilateral treaties on information exchange in order to "to fully end
the secrecy regime."

Overall, the 2009 corruption list is "of great concern," the
organisation said, with the majority of countries scoring under five
in the ranking, which ranges from zero, highly corrupt and 10, which
is very clean.

The bottom five -- Somalia, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan and Iraq --
show that "countries which are perceived as the most corrupt are also
those plagued by long-standing conflicts, which have torn apart their
governance infrastructure," TI said.

Nevertheless, six years after the US-led invasion and the chaos that
followed, Iraq was perceived to be slightly cleaner, with its score
rising to 1.5 points from 1.3 points. It also climbed two places in
the list.

But Afghanistan, where countries forming a 100,000-strong
international force are pressing President Hamid Karzai to stamp out
graft eight years after the ouster of the Taliban, slid from 1.5
points in 2008 to 1.3 in 2009.

The most corrupt nation on Earth remained Somalia, the impoverished
and war-torn Horn of Africa state that has been without a functioning
government for two decades, notching up a score of 1.1 points.

"The international community must find efficient ways to help war-torn
countries to develop and sustain their own institutions," said
Labelle.

But it was not just countries riven by conflict that saw their ratings
slide. Italy, a member of the Group of Seven rich countries came in at
63rd on the list, from 55th last year.

Fellow EU member Greece fared even worse, at 71st, slipping from 57th.

Seemingly winning the fight against corruption were Liberia -- whose
score improved from 2.4 points to 3.1 points, shooting up 41 places on
the list to 97th -- and Gambia, which went from 158 on the list to
106.

Other significant improvements were registered by Norway, Qatar, Saudi
Arabia, Montenegro and Malawi.

The United States inched up from 7.3 points to 7.5 but dropped one
place in the rankings to 19th. China's rating was stable at 3.6 points
but also fall seven places to 79th.

Russia continued to be very low down in the list, coming in at 146th
place, although its score edged higher to 2.2 points from 2.1 points.

The five countries seen as least afflicted by corruption were New
Zealand, Denmark, Singapore, Sweden -- and Switzerland, the Alpine
country seen as a bastion of bank secrecy.

New Zealand scored 9.4 points whereas Somalia scored 1.0 points.

The score is based on perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen
by business people and country analysts.

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