RTI EFFECT - India less corrupt than last year

Chetan Chauhan
New Delhi

THE LATEST report by Transparency International (TI), the Berlin-based
anti-corruption watchdog, has a surprise. India ranks No. 70 on its
Corruption Perception Index (CPI) out of 163 countries. It is a distinct
improvement over last year, when India stood at No 88. For the first time,
India has reversed its downward slide on the CPI, and a reason for this is
the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

In the report released on Monday, Iraq, Myanmar and Haiti are perceived as
the most corrupt countries while Finland, Iceland and New Zealand are seen
as the cleanest.

TI calculates the CPI score on the basis of perceptions of the degree of
corruption in each country by international organisations, business people
and analysts. The score ranges between zero, which means highly corrupt, and
10, which means very clean. The agency said countries with indices below
three were considered highly corrupt. India narrowly escaped falling in this
category with a score of 3.3 points.

Vice-Admiral (retd) R.H. Tahiliani, president of TI-India, said the marginal
improvement was welcome but there was a long road ahead. "Indians give Rs
21,000 crore every year as bribes," he said.

He said India moved up the chart thanks to the activism of civil society and
credited the RTI Act with bringing in more transparency in the government.
"That was objective of the Act," said O.P. Kejriwal, information
commissioner in the Central Information Commission.

According to the CPI, India has the lowest perceived level of corruption
among South Asian nations. Bangladesh, ranked 156, is the most corrupt.
Pakistan is ranked 142, followed by Nepal (121) and Sri Lanka (84).
cchauhan@hindustantimes.com Good, bad, ugly Finland, Iceland, New Zealand
are seen as cleanest among 163 nations. India ranked 70, an improvement on
its No. 88 in 2005. Iraq, Myanmar, Haiti are perceived as most corrupt.



URL :
http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=07_11_2006_001_021&typ=0&pub=264