Pandemic was perfect storm for corruption in the world, says expert

This Tuesday (31) Transparency International released the ranking of the IPC (Corruption Perception Index), referring to 2022. corrupt to 100 for the most upright.

The spending boom in the coronavirus pandemic was the perfect storm for corruption in different countries around the world, says Bruno Brandão, executive director of the NGO in Brazil. “With a major global emergency, governments had to spend like never before, and in an emergency way, like never before”, says the economist.

During the most acute phases of the health crisis, there were governments that took advantage of the emergency situation to try to increase their powers. In Hungary, for example, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán guaranteed the right to rule by decree indefinitely. The text approved in March 2020 allowed the Hungarian leader to suspend parliamentary sessions and elections and establish a five-year prison term for anyone who disseminated information considered false by the government.

In Brazil, suspicions related to the purchase of the Indian vaccine Covaxin spilled over into the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), and Wilson Witzel, former governor of Rio de Janeiro, was impeached after accusations of irregularities in the response to the health crisis.

Brazil has had a “lost decade” on transparency issues, says Brandão. All governments had been making legal and institutional contributions since redemocratization, but this trend was stopped under Bolsonaro. “Mensalão and Lava Jato do not arise from a vacuum, but from the country’s progress, which allowed something like these investigations to happen. Lava Jato breaks paradigms of historical impunity, but destabilizes the Brazilian political system. In this destabilization, a populist force and authority takes advantage of the conditions and hijacks the anti-corruption discourse”, he explains.

Transparency International ranks 180 countries and territories according to 13 data sources, as well as the perception of corruption in the public sector among experts and executives. The study has been published since 1995, but in 2012 it underwent a methodological change that allowed tracing a historical series.

Brazil rose two places in the ranking and appears in 94th place on the list, returning to the same position as in 2020. The index, however, remains stable in relation to the two previous rankings: 38. The number is below the average score for the Americas, which it was 43.

In recent years, the country that had the most significant improvement in the rate was Angola. Last year, the nation reached 33 points, 14 more than in 2018. Among those that had worse in the index are Canada and the United Kingdom, with a drop of 7 points each in five years.

Of the 180 countries analyzed, two-thirds scored below 50, and 124 stagnated. The number of countries with declining scores, however, is increasing.

The highest scoring region is Western Europe, with an average score of 66 — there’s Denmark, which tops the list with 90 points. At the other end, Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the lowest average score: 32. Somalia, the last country in the ranking, scored 12 points.

“Countries with strong institutions and healthy democracies often find themselves at the top of the index,” explains the report. “On the other hand, countries that are experiencing conflict, or where fundamental and political freedoms are heavily restricted, tend to get the lowest scores.”

Attributing corruption to cultural factors, however, is a mistake, says Brandão. “It is very easy to have a simplistic explanation that Latin America, for example, has corruption in its culture. But this is false. When companies from rich countries operate in poor countries, very often they repeat the same corrupt practices to benefit themselves. “, he states.

Democracy, according to the specialist, is the main factor influencing the perception of corruption. “The State opens up and begins to belong to the plurality, ceasing to function as a wealth concentration machine”, he argues.

In Latin America, the countries with the lowest scores are Nicaragua and Venezuela, currently with dictatorial regimes, in addition to Haiti, the epicenter of a spiral of crises. They score 19, 14 and 17 points respectively. Already at the top of the ranking are Uruguay, with 74, and Chile, with 67 points.

Brandão points out that the last two countries are stable democracies, with peaceful alternation of power and without major institutional ruptures, which normally interrupt efficient public policies.