This list is taken from the Transparency International Corruption Index of 2006. The scoring is from 1 – 10 with the lower score being the most corrupt. The source of the index is polls and surveys from 21 independent institutions. Only verifiable data is accepted for inclusion. The index includes 163 nations.
10. Equatorial Guinea – 2.1
Equatorial Guinea is one of the smallest countries in continental Africa. The current president of Equatorial Guinea is Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. The 1982 constitution of Equatorial Guinea gives Obiang extensive powers, including naming and dismissing members of the cabinet, making laws by decree, dissolving the Chamber of Representatives, negotiating and ratifying treaties and calling legislative elections.
Diplomats and even ministers have been caught smuggling drugs, sometimes using diplomatic bags and even the president’s baggage on state trips. The incumbent president has never equalled the bloodthirsty reputation of his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema whom he overthrew. On Christmas of 1975, Macías had 150 alleged coup plotters executed to the sound of a band playing Mary Hopkin’s tune Those Were the Days in a national stadium.
9. Uzbekistan – 2.1
Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south. Uzbekistan possesses the largest military force in the Central Asian region, having around 65,000 people in uniform.
Much of Uzbekistan’s GDP growth comes from favourable prices for certain key exports, especially cotton, gold, and increasingly gas, but the revenues from these commodities are distributed among a very small circle of the ruling elite, with little or no benefit for the populace at large.
8. Bangladesh – 2.0
The People’s Republic of Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It is surrounded by India on all sides except for a small border with Myanmar to the far southeast and the Bay of Bengal, part of the Indian Ocean, to the south.
The Prime Minister, as the head of government, forms the cabinet and runs the day-to-day affairs of state. While the Prime Minister is formally appointed by the President, he or she must be an MP who commands the confidence of the majority of parliament. The President is the head of state, a largely ceremonial post elected by the parliament. However the President’s powers are substantially expanded during the tenure of a caretaker government, which is responsible for the conduct of elections and transfer of power.
7. Chad – 2.0
Chad is a landlocked country in central Africa. It borders Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west.
Chad’s constitution provides for a strong executive branch headed by a president who dominates the political system. The president has the power to appoint the prime minister and the cabinet, and exercises considerable influence over appointments of judges, generals, provincial officials and heads of Chad’s para-statal firms. In 2005 constitutional term limits were removed. Most of President Deby’s key advisers are members of the Zaghawa ethnic group, although southern and opposition personalities are represented in government. Corruption is rife at all levels.
6. Democratic Republic of Congo – 2.0
is the third largest country by area on the African continent. It borders the Central African Republic and Sudan on the north, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania on the east, Zambia and Angola on the south, and the Republic of the Congo on the west.
After 4 years of interim between two constitutions that established different political institutions at the various levels of all branches of government, as well as different administrative divisions of the country, politics in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are settling into a stable presidential democratic republic. The transitional constitution established a system composed of a bicameral legislature with a Senate and a National Assembly. The Senate has, among other things, the charge of drafting the new constitution of the country. The executive branch is vested in a 60-member cabinet, headed by a pentarchy of a President, and four vice presidents.
5. Sudan – 2.0
Sudan is the largest African country by area. The country is situated at a crossroads between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the Northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the East, Kenya and Uganda to the Southeast, Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic to the Southwest, Chad to the West, and Libya to the Northwest.
A letter dated August 14, 2006 from the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch found that the Sudanese government is both incapable and unwilling to protect its own citizens in Darfur and that its militias are guilty of crimes against humanity. The letter added that these human rights abuses have existed since 2004. Some reports attribute part of the violations to the rebels as well as the government and the Janjaweed. The US State Department’s human rights report issued in March 2007 claims that “All parties to the conflagration committed serious abuses, including widespread killing of civilians, rape as a tool of war, systematic torture, robbery and recruitment of child soldiers”
4. Guinea – 1.9
Guinea is a nation in West Africa, formerly known as French Guinea. Guinea’s territory has a curved shape, with its base at the Atlantic Ocean, inland to the east, and turning south. The base borders Guinea-Bissau and Senegal to the north, and Mali to the north and north-east; the inland part borders Côte d’Ivoire to the south-east, Liberia to the south, and Sierra Leone to the west of the southern tip.
Guinea has had only two presidents since independence was declared on October 2, 1958. Retired general Lansana Conté took control of the country in 1984 in a coup d’état after the death of Sékou Touré. Conté was elected to rule as President in 1993, then again in 1998 and 2003 while promising to reform the country. But the validity of these elections is contested, since Conté has guarded his position and has not tolerated potential adversaries.
3. Iraq – 1.9
Iraq, is a country in the Middle East spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the southern part of the Arabian Desert. It shares borders with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to the west, Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, and Iran to the east.
Since the the invasion in 2003, a Multinational coalition of forces, mainly American and British, has occupied Iraq. The invasion has had wide-reaching consequences: increased civil violence, political breakdown, the removal and execution of former president Saddam Hussein, and national problems in the development of political balance, economy, infrastructure, and use of the country’s huge reserves of oil
2. Myanmar – 1.9
Myanmar is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia. It is also known as Burma. Myanmar is bordered by the People’s Republic of China on the north, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, and India on the northwest, with the Andaman Sea to the south, and the Bay of Bengal to the southwest.
Its political system remains under the tight control of the State Peace and Development Council, the military government led, since 1992, by Senior General Than Shwe. The Burmese military has dominated government since General Ne Win led a coup in 1962 that toppled the civilian government of U Nu. Several human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have reported on human rights abuses by the military government. They have claimed that there is no independent judiciary in Myanmar. The military government restricts Internet access through software-based censorship that limits the material citizens can access on-line. Forced labour, human trafficking, and child labour are common.
1. Haiti – 1.8
is a French and Creole speaking Latin American country located in the Greater Antilles archipelago on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. A former French colony, Haiti became the first independent black republic and the only nation ever to form from a successful slave rebellion. Haiti became the second non-native country in the Americas (after the United States) to declare its independence, on January 1, 1804.
Haiti has recently undergone a state of transition following the forced ousting of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on February 29, 2004. The circumstances surrounding his departure from office are disputed. René Préval was elected president in his place on February 7, 2006, and took office in May of that year. Préval has promised to bring peace and stability to the country.
Just out of interest, the top 5 least corrupt nations are Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, Denmark, and Singapore. The USA appears as number 20 least corrupt on the list with a score of 7.3.
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