Anticorruption drive: Bark or bite? - Business - International Herald Tribune
Anticorruption drive: Bark or bite? - Business - International Herald Tribune: "Anticorruption drive: Bark or bite?
By Donald Greenlees International Herald Tribune
THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2006
HONG KONG A decade ago, James Wolfensohn, then the World Bank president, lifted a veil that had long cloaked discussion within the bank on the topic of corruption, describing it as a 'cancer' on the global economy.
Before he spoke in October 1996, arguing that it was time to 'put teeth' into the anticorruption fight, the World Bank had forbidden the very use of the word 'corruption' in official documents.
At the time, many bank insiders felt like uncorking Champagne to celebrate the end of what they had called the 'prohibition era' - a period when the sensitivities of client and member governments made the subject of corruption virtually taboo.
But the reality of fighting corruption in the years since has been a disillusioning experience in most of the developing world, including Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America. The energy invested in the anticorruption drive has failed to reduce average levels of graft in government or business in the world's poorest regions, according to World Bank officials and other analysts.
The evidence from around the world, said Daniel Kaufman, the director of global programs at the World Bank Institute in Washington, is sobering.
'There has been no global improvement on average,' Kaufman said. 'The average quality of governance worldwide has remained stagnant.'
Since 1996, the World Bank has been compiling data on six important indicators of quality of governance in 209 countries, including their performance in controlling corruption, strengthening the rule of law and improving accountabilit"
By Donald Greenlees International Herald Tribune
THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2006
HONG KONG A decade ago, James Wolfensohn, then the World Bank president, lifted a veil that had long cloaked discussion within the bank on the topic of corruption, describing it as a 'cancer' on the global economy.
Before he spoke in October 1996, arguing that it was time to 'put teeth' into the anticorruption fight, the World Bank had forbidden the very use of the word 'corruption' in official documents.
At the time, many bank insiders felt like uncorking Champagne to celebrate the end of what they had called the 'prohibition era' - a period when the sensitivities of client and member governments made the subject of corruption virtually taboo.
But the reality of fighting corruption in the years since has been a disillusioning experience in most of the developing world, including Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America. The energy invested in the anticorruption drive has failed to reduce average levels of graft in government or business in the world's poorest regions, according to World Bank officials and other analysts.
The evidence from around the world, said Daniel Kaufman, the director of global programs at the World Bank Institute in Washington, is sobering.
'There has been no global improvement on average,' Kaufman said. 'The average quality of governance worldwide has remained stagnant.'
Since 1996, the World Bank has been compiling data on six important indicators of quality of governance in 209 countries, including their performance in controlling corruption, strengthening the rule of law and improving accountabilit"
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