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Russia Lost Half of Export Bribes
The world authority in studying bribing and corrupt practices, Transparency International, presented its Bribe Payers’ Index in October. The previous ratings were released in 2002 and 1999.
The current Bribe Payers` Index is much more detailed than the ratings of 2002 and 1999. The survey covered 30 states (vs. 19 states in 1999), which exports accounted for 82 percent of the global exports past year.
Unlike the previous ratings, today’s Bribe Payers’ Index doesn’t condemn the countries that haven’t signed Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business. The bad marks for those states were a matter of tradition judging by the previous ratings.
It is worth mentioning that Russia is only getting ready to seal this anti-bribery document.
Russia wasn’t mentioned in the 1999 rating and had the lowest score (i.e. was the bribe leader) in 2002. The current Index gives the fourth position to the country if counted from the end, of course, signalling it will have to pass a long route even to near the states, where the business bribes foreign officials only occasionally, not to mention some ideal state with no export bribing.
The good news is that the extent of corruption amid Russia’s exporters lowered by 51 percent in the past four years. But for Russia, no country worldwide can boast of such achievement.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 02, 2006
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