It should not come as no surprise that war and corruption go together.
According to Transparency International’s annual global corruption index, the four most corrupt countries in the world are Somalia, Burma, Afghanistan, and Iraq — Burma and Afghanistan are actually tied for number two.
TI’s report also has bad news for the United States: We are no longer in the top 20 least corrupt countries in the world:
The United States has dropped out of the “top 20” in a global league table of least corrupt nations, tarnished by financial scandals and the influence of money in politics, Transparency International said on Tuesday.
Somalia was judged the most corrupt country, followed by Myanmar and Afghanistan at joint second-worst and then by Iraq, in the Berlin-based watchdog TI’s annual corruption perceptions index (CPI).
The United States fell to 22nd from 19th last year, with its CPI score dropping to 7.1 from 7.5 in the 178-nation index, which is based on independent surveys on corruption.
This was the lowest score awarded to the United States in the index’s 15-year history and also the first time it had fallen out of the top 20.
In the Americas, this put the United States behind Canada in sixth place, Barbados at 17th and Chile in 21st place.
Israel is not doing too well, either:
Israel ranks among the most corrupt countries in the Western world, according to a study released by the International Transparency Organization on Tuesday.
Out of 178 countries – 1 being least corrupt – Israel was listed at number 30. But when compared to other member states of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Israel fared much worse.
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Israel received a score of 6.1 out of 10 in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which ranks countries according to the perception of corruption in the public sector.That score positions Israel in the 22nd place out of 33 members of the OECD.
In May 2010, the OECD unanimously voted in favor of accepting Israel as a member of the group. However, Israel is the organization’s poorest member, with the widest social gaps.
Israel’s CPI score has not significantly improved since 2007. In 1997, Israel received a relatively high score of 7.9 ranking number 15 in the world, but has deteriorated considerably since then.
However, Transparency International identified Bhutan, Chile, Ecuador, Macedonia, Gambia, Haiti, Jamaica, Kuwait, and Qatar as states where improvement had been made over the past year.
“As opposed to Israel, other countries are improving, and that is a problem,” said Transparency International Israel CEO Galia Sagi on Tuesday.
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