By David Roberts:



Everyone loves a good survey, and since its launch in the mid-1990s Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) has become a firm favorite around the globe. And as usual the latest edition, published earlier this month, makes for pretty grim reading, at least if we analyze the results for Latin America.

Like many surveys and rankings, perhaps we shouldn't read too much into the data. These surveys do not measure corruption, but rather people's perception of corruption, especially the perception of those engaged in business. In fact, the CPI is, as Transparency International makes clear, a "survey of surveys," being based on 13 other surveys, supposedly conducted by experts, rather than a new survey in itself.

Even so, by looking at the scores and rankings over the last few years, the obvious and overwhelming conclusion in the case of Latin America is that nothing much has changed. Individual countries have moved a couple of notches up or down the ranking over the years, but basically Chile and Uruguay have consistently been the star performers in Latin America, this year coming in equal 25th with a score of 6.7, although Chile has gradually slipped down in terms of score from highs of 7.5 in the early part of this decade, while Uruguay has shown a steady improvement.

Of the major Latin American countries, Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Mexico have tended to bunch together in the mid-70s in terms of place and, depressingly, in the mid-3s in terms of score. This year was no exception, with Brazil - despite all the talk of its strong economy and role as a protagonist on the world stage - coming in equal with Colombia and Peru at 75th and with a score of 3.7, and Mexico slipping down to 89th (from last year's 72nd) with a paltry 3.3.

Even further down the rankings come, as one would perhaps expect, Argentina, Paraguay, Ecuador and Bolivia in the 100s with scores below 3. And there's no prize for guessing who came last, at least in Latin America - Venezuela no less, which this year came in 162nd out of the 180 countries surveyed, with a miserly 1.9 points for the second year in a row, behind the likes of so-called failed states such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe.

At the other end of the scale we see all the usual suspects such as New Zealand, Denmark, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland etc.

So what should we conclude? According to Transparency International itself, "Throughout Latin America… weak institutions, poor governance practices and the excessive influence of private interests continue to undermine best efforts to promote equitable and sustainable development."

Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Mexico, all leading economies in the region, "should become anti-corruption strongholds but have been rocked by scandals involving impunity, kickbacks, political corruption and state capture."

And as for Argentina and Venezuela, their low performance in the index, is "an indication that high perceptions of corruption are not exclusively linked to poverty."

Additionally, "Latin American journalists face an increasingly restrictive environment with several countries passing or proposing legislation aimed at silencing critical coverage, which hampers overall press freedom and the crucial ability to report on corruption and its impact," the organization quite rightly says, and without naming names but we all know who it refers to.

And the global crisis and attempts to overcome it may, unwittingly, have contributed to making things worse, as "across the board the effects of the financial crisis and the subsequent economic downturn have highlighted the crucial importance of governance in the private and public sectors and in relationships between the two, particularly in respect to stimulus packages which are already pumping large amounts of money into badly affected economies."

A sorry, but all too familiar story indeed. And neither should those countries who tend to score relatively well in the region rest on their laurels. Too often the media, politicians and others in Chile and certain other countries spend too long comparing themselves with their (often rather poor) neighbors instead of seeking to make genuine progress toward development on a global scale. Or maybe we're just reading too much into the data.

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