Tax evasion leak ‘made world seem more corrupt’
Disclosures of tax evasion and money-laundering networks on a global scale in the Panama Papers helped make the world appear more corrupt in 2016, according to graft watchdog Transparency International.
The Berlin-based organisation said there were more falling scores than rising ones on its 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index, published on Wednesday. A lower score means a country is seen as more corrupt.
Declines were driven by “massive and pervasive” public sector corruption, it said.
The Panama Papers data leak also prompted a wave of anger at wealthy individuals and companies using well-established methods of evasion.
“It is still far too easy for the rich and powerful to exploit the opaqueness of the global financial system to enrich themselves at the expense of the public good,” Transparency International said.
The organisation’s president, Jose Ugaz, also pointed to countries with increasingly autocratic governments as places where the perception of corruption had been on the rise.
Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sought to tighten his grip on power, scored 41 points on the index scale of zero to 100, down from 50 three years earlier. Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been criticised for increasing authoritarianism, fell to 48 from 51 a year earlier.
DISTURBING PATTERN
“In countries with populist or autocratic leaders, we often see democracies in decline and a disturbing pattern of attempts to crack down on civil society, limit press freedom and weaken the independence of the judiciary,” Ugaz said.
The US fell two points to 74. Transparency International did not mention the election of US President Donald Trump in its statement about the 2016 index. But in one last week, it said Trump’s government appointments were “rife with potential conflicts of interest”.
Qatar fell 10 points to 61 after the scandal over the bidding process through which the country won the rights to host the Fifa World Cup in 2022.
The watchdog called on governments to go beyond anticorruption legislation to “deep-rooted systemic reforms” including public registries to track corporate ownership and stiffer punishments for “professional enablers” of tax evasion and fraud.
The usual champions — Denmark (90 points), New Zealand, Finland and Sweden — maintained their positions at the top of the 2016 list.
Somalia ranked last for the 10th year in a row, with 10 points, followed by South Sudan and North Korea.