Finland falls another rung on corruption perception ladder

Campaign funding furore expected to influence next year's figures, too

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Tuesday saw the publication of this year's Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, and much as expected Finland slipped down the rankings, which were headed by New Zealand, Denmark, Singapore and Sweden.
     
Finland is now 6th in a table that it led just two years ago, and fell this time by one place from 5th in 2008.
      Whereas last year Finland scored 9.0 on a ten scale (where the higher the figure indicates the lower a level of corruption within the society), now the country slipped to 8.9, albeit that such a small change is within the margins of error of the study. Finns will probably respond more nervously than some others to the change in the digit, since they are used to a school marking scheme where anything with a nine or higher indicates "excellent".
     
The general consensus is that the ongoing campaign funding mess has hurt Finland's squeaky-clean image, and this observation was backed up by the Transparanecy International local chairman Santeri Eriksson .
      "The reasons are the flaws and doubts that have already emerged of unsuitable influence", he said on Tuesday. "The [funding] scandal is certain to have an impact when next year's figures come out, too."
     
What then, should be done to raise Finland's standing as a country without corruption?
      "The first step would be for Finland to put into practice the Greco recommendations", says Eriksson, in a reference to the Council of Europe's ' Group of States Against Corruption' monitoring body.
      In December Finland is to respond to Greco on how the government has adhered to its recommendations on election financing and anti-bribery legislation.
      In the view of Greco, Finland should amend its bribery laws such that MPs could also be charged more easily with receiving bribes and in the same manner as civil servants.
      Eriksson firmly believes Finland will be put on the rack when Greco meets in December.
     
According to the TI Index, which has now been in existence since 1995, and which has drawn a fair amount of criticism over the years for vagueness and for the practical impossibility of measuring directly something that is wilfully hidden, the world's most corrupt countries are Somalia, Afghanistan, Burma, Sudan, and Iraq.
      It is no surprise that several of the countries at the bottom of the pile are also dirt-poor and countries at war.
     
One interesting observation concerns Finland's geographical position: the country immediately to the east is ranked 146th on the list, and the perceived "corruption-gap" that exists across the Finnish-Russian border must be among the highest in the world.
      This is of course a fact of life for all those attempting to do business in Russia.
      The links below give the rankings for all the 180 countries surveyed.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Proposal for tougher sanctions on MP bribery might be watered down (9.11.2009)
  Stricter provisions concerning bribery of members of Finnish Parliament (20.10.2009)
  Finland given a workover in Transparency International corruption report (28.9.2009)

See also:
  Finnish corruption: subtle, but by no means non-existent (4.8.2009)

Links:
  Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption (GRECO)
  Transparency International: Corruption Perception Index 2009
  Corruption Perceptions Index (Wikipedia)

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