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Irish Times, 27th September 2007
The nine developing countries that receive most of Ireland's bilateral aid remain near the bottom of a scale measuring perceived levels of corruption, despite some individual improvements.
All but two of the states designated programme countries by Irish Aid, the Government's overseas development division, scored less than three in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.
Countries are measured on a scale of 0 to 10, with scores below three indicating corruption is perceived as rampant. Six countries saw their scores remain static and three recorded slight improvements.
Of Irish Aid's nine programme countries, Tanzania, which received EUR25.6 million in aid last year, made the most progress: its score rose from 2.9 in 2006 to 3.2. Uganda, allocated EUR32.1 million by Irish Aid last year, and Lesotho have also seen an improvement in perceptions of corruption with the former's score rising from 2.7 last year to 2.8, and the latter's from 3.2 to 3.3. Other programme countries such as Ethiopia, Mozambique, Vietnam, East Timor and Zambia have seen their scores remain unchanged from 2006.
Malawi, which recently became Irish Aid's ninth programme country, also retained the same score as last year.
While Ethiopia, Mozambique and Zambia's scores remained the same as last year, the figures reflect a decline on those recorded for the three countries prior to 2006. For example, Ethiopia's score of 2.4 this year contrasts with the 3.2 it recorded in 2000, while Mozambique's score of 3.5 in 1999 has now fallen to 2.8. Transparency International Ireland chief executive John Devitt cautioned that only so much can be read into declining scores. "They may not reflect a trend of increasing corruption but rather increasing awareness of the problem both domestically and overseas," he said.
Mr Devitt said Transparency International believed aid should continue to flow to countries in need even if they are seen as corrupt.
In a statement, the anti-corruption organisation called on developing countries to use aid money "to strengthen their governance institutions, guided by national assessments and development strategies, and to incorporate strengthened integrity and corruption prevention as an integral part of poverty reduction programmes."
John O'Shea, chief executive of Goal and a long-standing critic of bilateral aid to corrupt governments, said the scores reinforced his view that aid should be channelled in other ways.
"These figures show there hasn't been a substantial improvement in the way these countries are dealing with corruption," he said. |
