Ukraine named among most corrupt countries of the world (10/01/00)

Ukraine named among most corrupt countries of the world

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine earned a dubious distinction on September 13 when it was named among the most corrupt countries of the world by an international, non-governmental organization that tracks corruption as perceived by international investors.

Transparency International, headquartered in Berlin, put Ukraine in 88th place - tied with Azerbaijan - among the 90 countries that it listed.

Ukraine did only slightly better than Yugoslavia, which claimed 89th place, and Nigeria, which was 90th, both of which until recently were ravaged by civil strife.

It is a precipitious drop even for Ukraine, which last year was 24th from the bottom.

Ukraine's decline is particularly remarkable because it comes as the country has publicly committed itself to reinvigorated economic and administrative reform as it attempts to draw foreign investment. Unusual too is that, while Ukraine has fallen, many of the other countries of the region - many of which have long been considered more corrupt - have maintained their positions or improved their rating over last year's survey.

For instance, while Ukraine dropped, Moldova remained in 75th position, Poland dropped a single place from 44th to 43rd and Russia stayed at 82nd. Belarus, ruled with an iron hand by President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, showed vast improvement, rising from 58th to 43rd place, while Uzbekistan moved up from 83rd to 75th. Then there is Kazakstan, considered the personal domain of its president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, which rose dramatically from 84th place to 63rd. Only Romania, which dropped from 63rd to 68th and Azerbaijan, 96th last year and tied with Ukraine today, saw their ratings move substantially south.

The director of the Ukrainian chapter of Transparency International, Serhii Holovatii, said he could not give specific reasons for Ukraine's acute decline in its standing inasmuch as Transparency International does not do individual assessments but merely develops the index.

The Ukraine director did point out, however, that for the first time this year the monitoring organization included the findings of the previous two years in the development of its index. As a result, recent improvements or degradations in the situation in a country are reflected to a lesser degree. Therefore, new scandals or reforms a country has undertaken will not be noted as acutely as would have occurred in past indices.

Mr. Holovatii, an outspoken critic of Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma ever since he was dismissed as minister of justice, also pointed out that not all countries are considered in the ratings index. "There are those that investors are no longer interested in, and so Transparency International does not even bother with them," explained the Ukraine director. He suggested that unless Ukraine begins to make inroads into political corruption that could soon be its future.

The rating, called a "corruption perception index," is developed from studies submitted by member-organizations as well as from Transparency International's own surveys of local analysts and international investors in local economies. It is a10-point scale developed in consultation with business investors and other non-governmental organizations, which measures the level of corruption among government officials and politicians.

Before compiling the index, Transparency International quantifies reports submitted by member-organizations, which include the World Economic Forum, the United Nations Development Program, and Harvard Institute for International Development and the World Bank.

This year Ukraine received a score of 1.5, while Yugoslavia and Nigeria earned 1.3 and 1.2, respectively. In contrast, Russia achieved a 2.1, Romania earned a 2.9 and Poland received a 4.2 index rating.

Finland took the top spot this year with a perfect score of 10, dethroning Denmark, which held first place for two years running. Canada came in fifth place with a score of 9.2, while the United States finished in 14th position with a 7.8 rating.

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