Leaders urged to combat corruption

Corruption "should be addressed" at the summit

By William Horsley BBC World Affairs correspondent

An annual survey of levels of corruption in countries all over the world says that bribery, and corruption in all its forms, is now a major cause of poverty and backwardness.

The organisation Transparency International has called on the world leaders at the United Nations summit in Johannesburg on Sustainable Development, to combat corruption as a matter of urgency.

This year Transparency International includes 102 countries, the highest number ever, in its survey of known or perceived levels of corruption around the world.

Bribery is a major cause of poverty

Countries in Africa, South America and Asia are judged to have the worst records.

Kenya, Angola, Madagascar, Nigeria, Paraguay, Indonesia and Bangladesh all score less than two on an index of up to 10. Transparency International says growing corruption has damaged efforts to establish democratic rule, and is a direct cause of financial and social disasters.

Corruption is seen as having increased sharply in Argentina, which is now unable to pay its international debts.

Graft and misrule have undermined democratic structures in Panama, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Haiti.

Projects delayed

Official corruption has delayed and complicated vital decisions over projects like the Three Gorges Dam in China, which are meant to help provide clean water to large populations who lack it.

Some former communist countries, like Slovenia, are seen as improving their record. But despite recent efforts Russia remains seriously corrupt, as do other former soviet states such as Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

Transparency International says that corrupt official and business people are trapping whole nations in poverty and hampering sustainable development.

It calls on leaders at the Johannesburg summit to tackle corruption urgently, and make pledges which they can keep.