Israel ranks 33rd
in World Corruption Perceptions Index
Corruption index indicates Israel still slipping in ranks, as
it is awarded six points on public, governmental sectors' immorality scale. Denmark, New
Zealand take lead, Somalia ranks last
Ynet
Israel
has slipped three places in the World Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) and is
now ranked 33rd out of 180 nations.
Tuesday's Transparency Report, which ranks corruption in
public service, gave Israel
a score of six points out of 10, with 10 being "corruption free."
Opinion
Are we that
corrupt? / Nahum Barnea
Disgust with politics a dangerous trend that undermines
public faith in democracy
Full story
Both the index and the report are complied by Transparency
International, an organization dedicated to increasing government and business
accountability and curbing both international and national corruption.
CPI's 2007 index ranked Israel in the 30th place, with 6.1
points on its Transparency Report. The corresponding 2006 report, ranked Israel in 34th
place.
Israel
shares the 33rd spot with the island
of Commonwealth of Dominica and island in the West
Indies.
More needs to be done
According to Transparency International's Israeli bureau,
Shvil, the top 10 on the list are comprised of the major members of the
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED), with Denmark, New
Zealand and Sweden
taking the lead with 9.3 points, Singapore
coming in second with 9.2 points and Switzerland ranking third with 9
points.
The top 20 include Germany
in 14th place (7.9), the UK
in 16th place (7.7) and Japan
and the US
in 18th place with 7.3 points. The bottom ranks included India in 85th place (3.4), China in 72nd place (3.6), Iran ranked 141 (2.3) and Russia in the
147 place with 2.1 points. Somalia
won the dubious last place on the list.
"Corruption means valuable resources are not directed
to where they should be, which has a detrimental effect on vital
infrastructures such as security, education and health," said Prof. Joseph
Gross, chairman of Shvil.
Shvil's CEO, Galia Sagi added that "Israel's
current rankings prove that the fight against corruption has yet to yield the
best results. Judging our officials according to ethical standards, rather than
legal criteria is the only way we can make a real difference."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3600846,00.html
