U.S. Fails to Make Significant Progress on Anti-Corruption under Obama, Study Finds

China Dropped from Grand Corruption Watch List as Reforms Slowly Take Root in World's Fastest Growing Major Economy, but Challenges Remain

WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Despite a change of administration in the United States in 2009, significant progress has not been achieved in curbing corruption at the national level in the U.S., a new study of government accountability in counties around the world has found. The report, a major investigative study of 35 countries, was released today by Global Integrity, an award-winning international nonprofit organization that tracks governance and corruption trends globally.

"We had waited for two years to cover the U.S. again, knowing that the 2008 presidential elections were going to bring one of two reformers into the White House," said Global Integrity's Managing Director, Nathaniel Heller. "What we found this year was somewhat disappointing: no significant progress has been made since 2007.  While it's only been one year, and while laudable efforts to increase the transparency of government information have been made, coordination between various agencies tasked with anti-corruption efforts remains inefficient."  Heller added, "To improve future U.S. scores, efforts will need to be made to improve the effectiveness of the Inspectors General and to minimize the influence of special interest money in politics, an area that will prove challenging in light of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to allow greater levels of corporate and union spending on election advertising."

The Global Integrity Report: 2009 covers developed countries such as the United States and South Korea as well as dozens of the world's emerging markets and developing nations, from Azerbaijan and China to Lebanon and Vietnam. Rather than measure perceptions of corruption, the report assesses the accountability mechanisms and transparency measures in place (or not) to prevent corruption through more than 300 "Integrity Indicators" as well as journalistic reporting of corruption.  Gaps in those safeguards suggest where corruption is more likely to occur.

While the U.S. has struggled to make progress on improving its anti-corruption safeguards under the Obama White House, China has been officially dropped from Global Integrity's Grand Corruption Watch List, which identifies countries potentially at risk of large-scale theft of public resources.  China's graduation from the Watch List is due in part to the government's push to raise accounting and auditing standards for the country's state-owned enterprises to international levels.  "In the long-run, this potentially gives the public a fighting chance of understanding the inner workings of China's largest state-owned companies," Heller said.  Significant anti-corruption challenges remain in China, however, particularly government pressure on media and civil society organizations reporting on corruption issues.

Other major findings of the report include the following:

• Foreign aid may not help anti-corruption enforcement in aid-dependent countries.  Global Integrity observed the biggest gap between a country's legal framework for fighting corruption and actual implementation in two countries where foreign aid and assistance play a major role, Uganda and Bosnia and Herzegovina.  These findings lend credence to some who argue that political leaders in aid-dependent countries are skillful at establishing laws and institutions to meet foreign donor requirements despite those same laws and institutions failing to deliver for ordinary citizens.
• Several lower- and middle-income countries experienced gains.  Important anti-corruption improvements were noted in Mexico and Sierra Leone, where the passage of new whistleblower protection laws has helped to improve the West African country's scores.  In Lebanon, adoption of the UN Convention Against Corruption has helped to set the stage for important legal reforms to be adopted in the coming months and years.
• Despite competitive elections, the Ukraine is at risk for special interest influence.  The Ukraine was the only country assessed in 2009 to experience a noticeable decline in performance, and the most recent data gathered by Global Integrity demonstrate that while the country is able to hold relatively free and fair elections, it has suffered significant setbacks in the implementation of other key transparency and accountability safeguards since our last assessment in 2007.  Of particular ongoing concern is the near-absence of conflicts of interest regulations for senior officials within the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, opening the door to the influence of special interests and foreign governments.

"The country assessments that comprise the Report offer among the most detailed, evidence-based evaluations of anti-corruption mechanisms available anywhere in the world," said Heller. "They provide policymakers, investors and citizens alike with the information to understand the governance challenges unique to each country and to take action."

The Global Integrity Report is the product of months of on-the-ground reporting and data gathering by a team of more than 150 in-country journalists and researchers who prepared close to a million words of text and more than 10,000 data points for their respective countries.  The 2009 report covers:

Algeria

Armenia

Azerbaijan

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Brazil

China

Colombia

Georgia

Germany

Ghana

India

Indonesia

Jordan

Kenya

Kosovo

Lebanon

Liberia

Macedonia

Malawi

Mexico

Mongolia

Nepal

Nicaragua

Norway

Rwanda

Serbia

Sierra Leone

South Korea

Trinidad

Uganda

Ukraine

United States

Venezuela

Vietnam

Zimbabwe

To access full results from the Global Integrity Report: 2009, please visit http://report.globalintegrity.org.  

Global Integrity is a leading international non-profit organization that tracks governance and corruption trends around the world.  Working with a network of more than nine hundred in-country journalists and researchers in more than 100 countries, we aim to shape and inform the debate around governance and anti-corruption reforms through in-depth diagnostic tools at the national, sub-national, and sector levels.  Our information is regularly used by aid donors, civil society advocates, and governments alike to press for governance reforms in both the developed and developing world.  For more information about the organization, visit http://www.globalintegrity.org.

SOURCE Global Integrity