Argentina has not improved in the global ranking that measures corruption

New Corruption Perception Index (CPI) that the organization Transparency International (IT) He announced world-wide, early this morning, to place Argentina in a position in the world ranking that was probably not what the government of Mauricio Macri was waiting for at the beginning of his last term. Faced with an electoral scenario crossed by a bad economic situation, the fight against corruption and transparency will be one of the axes of the campaign of the party in power to try to reiterate the triumph of 2015.

According to IPC 2018 -the last one that will be known during the current management- the country is again in 85th position this year, as in the measure of 2017, out of a total of 180 countries badyzed. As a small consolation, he obtained a very slight improvement of the score: 40 points instead of 39 in the last index, on a scale from 0 to 100 points, 0 meaning that a country is perceived with high corruption and 100 as a very transparent country.

With this score, Argentina remains below the world average in terms of perception of corruption which is 43 points –an already poor score, and he between two-thirds of the countries that do not reach 50 points, according to the computer indicator.

He shares his position with the African country of Benin – the cradle of voodoo religion – and is only one point below the Africans of Burkina Faso and Ghana; from India; Kuwait; Turkey; and the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago. Immediately below him, with 39 points, are China and Serbia.

The ranking of transparency is led – again – by Denmark with 88 points, followed by New Zealand with 87 points. They share third place with Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and Singapore, with 85. top ten It is completed by Norway, the Netherlands, Canada and Luxembourg, all with more than 80 points, double that of Argentina.

On the other end, the countries considered the most corrupt are Syria and South Sudan, both with 13, and at the bottom of the list is Somalia, with only 10 out of 100 points.

If the IPC is badyzed by regions, Western Europe is the one with the best average score (66 points), and Africa the worst (32 points), closely followed by Eastern Europe and Central Asia (35 points on average).

According to Transparency International's badysis, since 2012, only 20 countries have recorded significant improvements in their respective scores. The main organization in the fight against corruption mentions among them the cases of Estonia and Cote d 'Ivoire. "In 16 other countries, including Australia, Chile and Malta, scores have deteriorated significantly," he said in a statement released today. In the case of Chile, it moved from position 20 in 2012 to position obtained in the last measure.

"The IPC 2018 shows a stagnation of the fight against corruption in most countries and reveals that corruption contributes to a crisis of democracy on a global scale", warned the organization that since October 2017, it is chaired by an Argentine, Dr. Delia Ferreira Rubio.

"Our research establishes a very clear link between having a healthy democracy and the success of the fight against corruption in the public sector. Corruption is much more likely to occur when democracy is based on weak foundations and, as we have seen in many countries, when undemocratic and populist politicians have the opportunity to use it for their advantage."said Ferreira Rubio, former president of Poder Ciudadano, head of the Argentine IT department.

In Latin America, Argentina ranks third, although it is far from the first two. It stands out in the first place Uruguay, who repeats performance of 2017: in the place 23 of the transparency ranking, with 70 points.

The country's got just one point less than the United States, who lost four compared to last year 's index and reaches its lowest level of CPI for the last seven years. In the 2018 index, it is also the first time since 2011 that the country of the North has left the group of 20 leaders of the IPC. According to the computer badysis, "this decrease occurs in a context where its system of checks and balances is threatened, in addition to erosion of ethical standards at its highest level of power."

The second highest ranking in Latin America, despite the fact that since 2012, it has also decreased by seven places, Chile: With 67 points, he is in 27th position.

The worst in terms of transparency in the region, are Bolivia and Paraguayin position 132, with only 29 points both. They are overtaken only by Venezuela, which occupies 168 with only 18 points. With Nicolás Maduro in the midst of difficult questions for his new term, this country is again perceived as the most corrupt in the region.

Although Argentina with its 40 points is far from Uruguay and Chile, it still exceeds Colombia, Peru and Brazil. The impact of the disclosure of information Wash jato As a result, the main Mercosur partner in the ranking fell. In 2017, Brazil had 37 points, and this year 35, its lowest score in seven years for the CPI. So he went down from position 96 to 105.

However, the question that arises – also with regard to bribe books in Argentina – is whether When corruption scandals are discovered, is the country considered more or less corrupt? Is there a greater perception of corruption because business is revealed? Or is there less corruption – and the country is better ranked in the IPC – because the facts are brought to justice and punished?

The answers to these questions are unclear and relate to what some regard as the "weakness" of this Transparency International indicator, the most widely used in the world for badessing corruption in different countries.

Where does the corruption index come from?

L & # 39; s index measures annually the perception of corruption in relation to public sector behavior, that is to say in the political and administrative fields. Since the existence of bribes and the misappropriation of public funds, up to the nepotism, the absence of penal punishment or whistleblower protection, by the way anti-corruption laws, the mechanisms for obtaining public works contracts and the prevention of conflicts of interest by officials.

This has been the case since 1995, based on an average of 13 surveys of experts and business executives in a number of countries ranging from 170 to 180, depending on the year (the total number depends on the existence of sufficient data available for badysis). It does not collect citizens' perceptions or experiences of corruption, tax evasion, illicit financial flows or money laundering, or corruption in the private sector..

The sources of information used for the 2018 CPI are based on data released in the previous two yearswhich, in the case of Argentina, covers the entire management of change. Therefore, the measure does not fully account for the impact – for better or for worse, according to respondents' perception – of the liberation last August of the notebooks of the bribes this revealed the illegal collection circuit with public works during Kirchnerism.

The historical evolution of Argentina

If we badyze the historical performance of our country to this extent since 2012, Argentina was improving in the standings, especially in 2016, when it went from position 107 to position 95. That year, he went from 32 points earned in the last year of the management of Cristina Kirchner – the lowest in the series – to 36.

In 2017 – the second year of change – our country gained 10 additional places and ranked 85th, as in the CPI known today.. Macri himself is touted of this result in his opening speech of the regular sessions last year, pointing out that the country had been ranked in the "Transparency International" index. from 106 to 85 in two years. It is the first time that Argentina is improving. positions in two years. "In fact, he made a slight mistake: in 2015, the country ranked 107th in the CPI, and not 106. In contrast, the change in measurement methodology of the 39; CPI in 2012 prevents any comparison beyond this year.

according to Pablo Secchi, Executive Director of Poder Ciudadano, the very small advance of Argentina on a score of 39 to 40 last year "can be explained by certain regulations on transparency and the fight against corruption that have been sanctioned by this direction, as the Law of access to public information, the law of the repentant and its application in the case of notebooks, or the Right of criminal liability of legal persons, among others ".

However, he warned that the country "will not exceed the CPI average until reforms are implemented in all sectors of the state and that a mechanism is in place. fight against corruption is generated ". In addition to stressing "the need for a reform of the justice system in which slowness and impunity prevail as a common denominator", he listed what he sees as the "debts" of this government: "Nail New law of ethics in the exercise of the public service who effectively controls the conflict of interests, which is the space where most doubts accumulate; reset the role of the Office of Anti-Corruption and its independence; a new Purchases and Contracts Law which incorporates standards of integrity and transparency. And mainly reduce the gap between standards and practices"

Pablo Secchi, executive director of Poder Ciudadano, Argentine IT section.

With regard to access to information, Secchi discussed before Infobae What?Although modern regulation has progressed and an agency has been created to monitor compliance, the national government still faces obstacles in accessing information that it considers "sensitive" to its interests."

In this sense, Ferreira Rubio warned that "in the fight against corruption, laws are necessary but not sufficient. The Congress has pbaded important laws, but it is of little use if officials continue to act as if this information were their private property. The distance between statements and messages in social networks and government behavior explains that Argentina remains in the red zone of the index that measures the perception of the national public sector."

Delia Ferreira Rubio, president of Transparency International since 2017.

Index of Corruption and Democracy

In the statement issued by TI worldwide – early in the morning of Argentina – to inform of the new CPI, the executive director of the computer, Patricia Moreira, claimed that "so many institutions all the world – often by leaders with authoritarian or populist tendencies – it is necessary to continue working to strengthen the mechanisms of control and balance and protect the rights of citizens. Corruption undermines democracy and generates a vicious cycle that leads to the deterioration of democratic institutions, which are progressively losing their ability to control corruption."

In this sense, the cross badysis performed by the Index computer with the data relating to democracy reveals "a direct relationship between corruption and global democratic health. Democracies qualified as "complete" earn an average of 75 points in the CPI; those labeled "low" an average of 49 points; "hybrid regimes" (which have typical elements of autocratic systems), 35 points on average; and the autocratic regimes are the worst performers, with 30 points on average. "Our country is thus ranked according to its score in the 2018 index – according to this computer badysis – between countries with" weak "democracy and those with a government with autocratic characteristics.