Middle East corruption escalates

The level of corruption in Bahrain, Oman and Jordan has significantly worsened over the last year, anti-corruption coalition Transparency International said on Wednesday.

In its 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), the organisation lumped the Middle East nations in with other countries such as Thailand, Laos and Papua New Guinea as experiencing a serious rise in dishonesty within the public sector.

“Countries with a significant worsening in perceived levels of corruption in 2007 include Austria, Bahrain, Belize, Bhutan, Jordan, Laos, Macao, Malta, Mauritius, Oman, Papua New Guinea and Thailand,” Transparency International stated.

The index ranks the degree of public sector corruption as perceived by business people and country analysts between zero and 10, with 10 being the least corrupt.

Bahrain saw its CPI score drop from 5.7 last year to 5.0 this year, putting it in 46th place along with Costa Rica and Bhutan out of 180 countries ranked in the survey.

Oman and Jordan were both placed in 53rd place alongside Mauritius with a CPI score of 4.7. In 2006 Oman and Jordan had a score of 5.4 and 5.3 respectively.

No specific reasons were given for the rise in corruption in the countries.

The UAE and Qatar were judged the least corrupt countries in the region, being ranked 32nd and 34th respectively.

However, the UAE saw its CPI score drop from 6.2 in 2006 to 5.7 this year, while Qatar’s score remained at 6.0.

Transparency International put Saudi Arabia as the most corrupt Gulf country in 79th position on a score of 3.4, while it judged Syria the Middle East nation with the highest level of corruption, giving the country as score of just 2.4 and placing it 138th.

The least corrupt countries on the list were New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Singapore and Sweden.

The countries with the highest levels of corruption were Somalia and Myanmar.

Transparency International said there is a strong correlation between corruption and poverty.

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