UK joins the Dirty Dozen increasingly corrupt countries
Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index Report 2023
Two things leapt out from this week’s publication of Transparency International’s Global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2024. The first was that the UK fell to its lowest ever position in the Index. The decline of the UK has occurred over several years suggesting a direction of travel rather than a blip. The explanatory note from TI explained:
“Since 2018, 12 countries significantly declined on their CPI scores [meaning a higher perceived level of corruption]. The list includes low and middle-income countries such as El Salvador, Honduras, Liberia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka and Venezuela, as well as upper-middle and high-income economies like Argentina, Austria, Poland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.”
The fall of the UK in the index is unsurprising given the scale of domestic corruption being reported in its media. There are also no real moves to correct a national downward trajectory. The political opposition has suggested that it will appoint:
“a COVID corruption commissioner to recoup money that has been lost to waste, fraud and flawed contracts during the pandemic”[1].
This seems a very limited response to rampant corruption, phrased in terms of budgetary prudence rather than addressing the wholesale abandonment of the Nolan standards in public life.
The second alarm bell came from the way Transparency International itself described the problem. In its opening sentence, it says:
“Transparency International shows that most countries have made little to no progress in tackling public sector corruption.”
Transparency International’s own definition of corruption is the “abuse of entrusted power for private gain”. There is no mention of the public or private sector. It seems to me that the most prevalent problem for the world is surely corrupt politicians privately working with the private sector to undermine public sector institutions and help themselves to the public purse. The problem is better described as corruption of the public sector rather than public sector corruption. This could be a translation issue but my professional instinct is to follow the money to help us understand where to find the corruption.
If we are to address the UK’s corruption problem we must understand it and define it better.
[1] Quote from Reuters: Accessed 31 January 2024 https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/what-policies-have-uks-labour-party-announced-their-conference-2023-10-09/