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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=770 border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD bgColor=#ffffff colSpan=2><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD height=53><H4>Bribery, kickbacks maintain Ja's position among 'corrupt' countries</H4>
By Camilo Thame, Business Reporter</TD><TD height=53><DIV align=center>[img]file:///F|/Webmaster%20Files/New%20EFG/26-Mar-04/images/next.jpg[/img]</DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
When former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson vehemently denounced corrupt practices by state officials leading up to the 2002 elections, he pointed to a clean-run government under his leadership during a fourth term.
"Anytime I find any one of you putting your finger in the cookie jar, a gone you gone," he warned from a platform in St. Mary seven months before elections.
But having secured victory, the high level of corruption was unmoved over the last three years, according to Transparency International's latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released on Monday, which in the case on Jamaica was weighted heavily on the level of bribery and kick-backs involved in day-to-day business.
Jamaica's score was 3.7 out of 10 in the CPI 2006, one percentage point higher than the previous year and four points higher than in 2004, well within the three per cent margin of error the corruption watchdog cites in its survey.
"We have had no real movement because the change falls within the three per cent margin of error," said
Beth Aub, former general secretary of Transparency International Jamaica. "Countries that score around 3.5 are considered to be 'very corrupt' and all countries scoring under 5.0 are considered corrupt."
Only 44 countries of the 163 nations surveyed in the latest poll scored five or higher, with Scandinavia, western Europe and North America topping the list.
Indeed, TI posited that there was a strong correlation between corruption and poverty, with a concentration of impoverished states at the bottom of the ranking.
"Corruption traps millions in poverty," said TI's chairperson Huguette Labelle in a press statement issued Monday.
ANTI-CORRUPTION LAWS
"Despite a decade of progress in establishing anti-corruption laws and regulations, today's results indicate that much remains to be done before we see meaningful improvements in the lives of the world's poorest citizens."
The 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index is a composite index that draws on multiple
expert opinion surveys that poll perceptions of public sector corruption in 163
countries around the world.
It scores countries on a scale from zero to 10, with zero indicating high levels of perceived corruption and ten indicating low levels of perceived corruption.
Countries scoring below five, which included all low-income countries and all but two African states Ñ Botswana and Mauritius Ñ were considered to be faced with "serious perceived levels of domestic corruption."
A score of three, crested by Jamaica, classifies where corruption is perceived as "rampant" under which nearly half the countries scored.
TRANSPARENCY
"What transparency does is show businesspersons who wan to invest outside of their country, where they should invest while minimising the amount of money needed for slush funds or bribes," Aub added. "The further up the scale the country is, the less one will have to pay beyond the actual investment."
In the case of Jamaica, panels of experts and correspondents from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and the Merchant International Group (MIG) were asked to assess the incidence of corruption, while surveys were done by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and World Markets Research Centre (WMRC).
From these assessments, Jamaica scored among the third quartile or fourth quintile - depending on
By Camilo Thame, Business Reporter</TD><TD height=53><DIV align=center>[img]file:///F|/Webmaster%20Files/New%20EFG/26-Mar-04/images/next.jpg[/img]</DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
When former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson vehemently denounced corrupt practices by state officials leading up to the 2002 elections, he pointed to a clean-run government under his leadership during a fourth term.
"Anytime I find any one of you putting your finger in the cookie jar, a gone you gone," he warned from a platform in St. Mary seven months before elections.
But having secured victory, the high level of corruption was unmoved over the last three years, according to Transparency International's latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released on Monday, which in the case on Jamaica was weighted heavily on the level of bribery and kick-backs involved in day-to-day business.
Jamaica's score was 3.7 out of 10 in the CPI 2006, one percentage point higher than the previous year and four points higher than in 2004, well within the three per cent margin of error the corruption watchdog cites in its survey.
"We have had no real movement because the change falls within the three per cent margin of error," said
Beth Aub, former general secretary of Transparency International Jamaica. "Countries that score around 3.5 are considered to be 'very corrupt' and all countries scoring under 5.0 are considered corrupt."
Only 44 countries of the 163 nations surveyed in the latest poll scored five or higher, with Scandinavia, western Europe and North America topping the list.
Indeed, TI posited that there was a strong correlation between corruption and poverty, with a concentration of impoverished states at the bottom of the ranking.
"Corruption traps millions in poverty," said TI's chairperson Huguette Labelle in a press statement issued Monday.
ANTI-CORRUPTION LAWS
"Despite a decade of progress in establishing anti-corruption laws and regulations, today's results indicate that much remains to be done before we see meaningful improvements in the lives of the world's poorest citizens."
The 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index is a composite index that draws on multiple
expert opinion surveys that poll perceptions of public sector corruption in 163
countries around the world.
It scores countries on a scale from zero to 10, with zero indicating high levels of perceived corruption and ten indicating low levels of perceived corruption.
Countries scoring below five, which included all low-income countries and all but two African states Ñ Botswana and Mauritius Ñ were considered to be faced with "serious perceived levels of domestic corruption."
A score of three, crested by Jamaica, classifies where corruption is perceived as "rampant" under which nearly half the countries scored.
TRANSPARENCY
"What transparency does is show businesspersons who wan to invest outside of their country, where they should invest while minimising the amount of money needed for slush funds or bribes," Aub added. "The further up the scale the country is, the less one will have to pay beyond the actual investment."
In the case of Jamaica, panels of experts and correspondents from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and the Merchant International Group (MIG) were asked to assess the incidence of corruption, while surveys were done by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and World Markets Research Centre (WMRC).
From these assessments, Jamaica scored among the third quartile or fourth quintile - depending on