Last year, when Vice President Cristina Kirchner was sentenced to 6 years in prison in the Highway case, Argentina
maintained the same poor position
in the Corruption Perception Index of the NGO Transparency International as in the 2021 survey.
It obtained
only 38 points out of 100
(countries that have a more transparent state have more points) and was
ranked 94 out of some 180
countries in which the perception of theft from the State was measured during 2022. Thus, Argentina is in a location
similar to countries such as Morocco, Ethiopia, Brazil, Moldova and Colombia, was announced on Tuesday.
The perception index is based on
a survey of businessmen and academics and laws and measures taken or omitted by governments
, among other variables, because corruption cannot be measured to the extent that bribes, for example, are kept hidden by a pact of silence between businessmen and officials.
So it's very difficult to measure.
This survey is used by
international investment and credit organizations such as the World Bank
to recommend loans or projects.
The continuity of the bad perception for Argentina was maintained last year, compared to 2021, despite the fact that the former president of the Nation
had her first conviction in half a dozen cases in which she is prosecuted,
which was considered a milestone in the fight against corruption.
The federal oral court 2 sentenced Cristina, together with former officials, for the directing of 3,500 million dollars in public works contracts in favor of her partner, Lázaro Báez.
It was the first time in Argentine history that
a vice president in office
was sentenced , even if it was for events that occurred during her tenure as president.
In addition, in our country the offensive of Kirchnerism "against the Justice that ended
with the request for impeachment of the Supreme Court of Justice
" is observed as
"a worrisome aspect
," warned Pablo Secchi, executive director of Poder Ciudadano, which is the Argentine chapter of Transparency International which is based in Berlin.
In 2021, Argentina suffered
a serious setback
in this Corruption Perception Index, obtaining only 38 points out of 100 (zero is for the most corrupt).
And go back to position 96 out of 180 countries, thus falling 18 places in the ranking compared to 2020. That was one of the most serious declines since the creation of this index in 1995.
According to experts, in 2021 Vice President Cristina Kirchner's project to change the chief prosecutor and the VIP vaccination scandals and
the party at the Olivos presidential
villa influenced the survey.
The best score Argentina had had in the 2019 index with 45 points and in 66th place among the best qualified, that is, the last year of the management of former President Mauricio Macri.
The Transparency International report in English does not make specific references to Argentina.
In summary, "
no changes are observed
in the position of Argentina with respect to the previous measurement", explained Secchi.
But "mainly no changes have been observed in recent years as a result of"
innovative policies in the fight against corruption have not been carried out
, and the issue
is not on the government's public agenda
, "he added.
As a positive aspect, Secchi highlighted "the progress in integrity policies of the Ministry of Public Works, especially those related to the Investment Map, and
the Integrity and Transparency Registry for Companies and Entities (RITE)
promoted by the Anti-Corruption Office (OA). with the support of the IDB and UNDP". This registry "is to contribute to the development and improvement of integrity programs, the exchange of good practices and the promotion of transparent environments in businesses and markets", he explained.
At the end of last year, the head of the OA, Félix Crous
, resigned from that body, which remains headless, as another sign of the government's little interest in the fight against corruption.
On the other hand, Congress "
has not advanced
with the promised reform of the Law on Ethics in the Exercise of Public Function (which was sanctioned during the administration of former President Carlos Menem), nor with the Public Works Law", stressed.
"Both regulations are necessary to
modernize the anti-corruption regulation
," Secchi concluded.
For his part, the professor of the Austral University and expert on the subject Marcelo Bermolén opined before
Clarín
that "Argentina
is once again postponed in the fight against corruption,
in a framework of stagnation, anomie and internal power struggles."
Bermolén is director of the Institutional Quality Observatory and professor at the School of Politics, Government and International Relations of the Austral University.
He too, is a lawyer and an expert in Access to Public Information, Institutional Quality and Electoral Transparency.
“Although it matches the Corruption Perceptions Index score from the previous year (with 38 points out of 100) and improves a couple of places because others are slightly worse, in a continent already in crisis, and remains
at the bottom of the table from the Transparency International ranking,
”added the expert.
The change in position is due to the entry and exit of countries from the survey.
This "failure is crowned with the recent departure of Félix Crous as head of the Anti-Corruption Office, in practice
an institution dependent on the national executive branch
that is reduced to formalizing mere recommendations."
While "the energy of the government is placed
on besieging the Supreme Court
and promoting the exoneration of its leaders (indicted for corruption), society keeps corruption
on the podium of the most severe problems that affect Argentina
, behind inflation and the economic situation of the country” added Bermolén.
"Specifically,
there is no public policy
to fight corruption," concluded the expert from the Austral University.
In the global Ranking,
Denmark leads the ranking of the most transparent countries with 90 points
, followed by Finland and New Zealand with 87 points each.
The worst positions are from Somalia with 12 points, Syria and South Sudan with 13 points and the
Venezuela of the government of Nicolás Maduro with 14 points
.
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Serious regression of Argentina in the world corruption perception index
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Argentina fell back in 2020 in the world corruption index
