Transparency International

Staff Shortage Besets Human Rights Commissions, 10 States Don’t Have Chairpersons: RTI

Three states have no human rights commissions at all, while they are completely non-functional in two other states.

New Delhi: State human rights commissions (SHRC) across the country are facing acute shortage of staff as appointments are not being made. In ten states, even the post of chairperson of the commission is vacant. While three states have no human rights commissions at all, in another two states, they are completely non-functional. Appointments to the post of chairperson have been made only in 13 states.

This information was revealed in a report released by Transparency International India (TII), a non-governmental organisation working on issues of transparency and corruption. The report presents a detailed account of the status and functioning of the state human rights commissions.

According to TII’s report, SHRCs in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Manipur and Meghalaya do not have chairpersons, while those in Himachal Pradesh and Telangana are absolutely non-functional. In addition, 16 of the 48 posts sanctioned for members (judicial and non-judicial) are vacant in 23 state commissions. At present, only 37 appointees have been confirmed.

Meanwhile, appointments have not been made for 286 of the total sanctioned posts for administrative jobs in the commissions. Several states refused to provide information in this regard. SHRCs in Andhra Pradesh and Goa have two posts for judicial and non-judicial members, both of which are vacant. In the absence of a chairperson, these commissions also seem to be completely inactive. The situation is similar in Chhattisgarh, which does not have a chairperson and another post is also vacant. Just one member has been appointed. In Gujarat’s SHRC, one post is vacant. Two posts are unfilled each in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, whereas one post each is vacant in Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Manipur and Meghalaya.

Also Read: India’s National Human Rights Commission is Defeating Its Own Purpose

Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland have no human rights commissions.

Besides the posts for chairmen and members, a large number of administrative posts are also unoccupied in human rights commissions across the country. The number of unfilled administrative posts is 41 in Bihar, 40 in Uttar Pradesh, 26 in Odisha, 24 in Andhra Pradesh, 23 in Tamil Nadu, 22 in West Bengal, 18 in Gujarat, 16 in Maharashtra, 11 in Goa, 10 in Haryana, 9 in Jharkhand, 8 in Rajasthan, 2 in Assam, 2 in Manipur and one Kerala.

Source: Transparency Internationl India

TII obtained this information through a Right to Information (RTI) application filed with commissions across the country. Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura and Uttarakhand gave no information regarding the administrative posts in the SHRCs.

National and state human rights commissions have been set up under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. One member post is also vacant in the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) but the commission did not disclose information regarding its administrative positions.

Also Read: Government Shuts Down J&K Human Rights Commission, Information Commission

TII’s executive director Ramnath Jha said that the Human Rights Act was implemented to protect the dignity and self-respect of individuals and so that the country can move towards progressive changes. “This was a milestone law for the country. But if posts in the commissions across the country remain vacant, how can this objective be served? How can the human rights of people be protected?” he asked.

Status of complaints received by SHRCs

According to the TII report, almost 19 lakh complaints/violations have been filed with the 23 SHRCs so far. The highest, 3,60,597, were registered by the Uttar Pradesh Human Rights Commission between 2002-03 and 2018-19. Punjab is second with 2,69,057 cases between 1997-98 and 2018-19. At the other end of the spectrum, 8,539 cases were registered in Uttarakhand and 7,371 in Jharkhand.

Source: Transparency Internationl India

The NHRC registered 16,62,519 cases between 1993-94 and 2016-17 and as of December 3, 22,043 cases are pending before it.

The Central and state human rights commissions also register cases of death in custody. Documents obtained through RTI applications reveal that the NHRC has so far registered 31,845 cases of custodial deaths.

While Punjab has registered 1,860 cases of custodial deaths, this number is 1,718 in West Bengal, 1,266 in Bihar, 1,118 in Assam, 843 in Tamil Nadu, 629 in Rajasthan, 629 in Gujarat, 391 in Andhra Pradesh, 326 in Madhya Pradesh, 129 in Kerala, 110 in Uttarakhand, 89 in Haryana. In Goa, 15 deaths were recorded, while just two were recorded in Tripura and one in Manipur.

Also Read: Throwing Stones From Inside a Glass House – India’s Human Rights Record Since 2014

Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Odisha and Sikkim did not disclose this information. The data obtained shows that the commissions are taking suo motu cognizance only in very few cases. The NHRC has taken suo motu cognizance in merely 1,067 cases so far.

The human rights commissions of major states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, and Odisha did not disclose the data in this regard.

The human rights commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Manipur and Tripura do not have a website and the state commissions which do have a website do not offer information regarding several significant issues. Except Bihar’s commission, there is no information about the assets and liabilities of the chairpersons on the website of any other state and national human rights commission. The documents obtained also reveal that the human rights commissions are not publishing the annual report on time. The annual report for the last two years is not available on the NHRC website.

Translated from the Hindi original by Naushin Rehman.

India Scores Below Average on Transparency International’s Corruption Index

The country is ranked at 78 among a total 180.

New Delhi: Following the trend of last year, India continues to be among the most corrupt countries in the world, Transparency International found in a report that cited growing threats to democracy worldwide.

According to the global body’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2018, even while the country improved on its previous ranking of 81, it is currently the 78th most corrupt country in the world.

CPI ranks 180 nations based on institutional perceptions of public sector corruption on a scale of 0-100. A score of zero indicates a “highly corrupt” nation while 100 indicates a “very clean” one.

On the corruption index, Denmark is placed at the top with 88 points. Overall, more than two-thirds of the countries scored below 50 in the index – with an average score of only 43. India, with 41 points, was below the average.

“Corruption is much more likely to flourish where democratic foundations are weak and … where undemocratic and populist politicians can use it to their advantage,” said Delia Ferreira Rubio, who chairs the global civil society group.

Also read: Anna Hazare Begins Hunger Strike Over Lokpal

Scroll.in quoted the watchdog as saying that despite the widespread demands from the public – led by social activist Anna Hazare – against corruption and the passage of the comprehensive Jan Lokpal Act, there has been “little to no movement on the ground to build the specialist anti-corruption infrastructure required.”

Incidentally, Hazare began a hunger strike on Wednesday over “non-fulfilment” of assurances by the Centre and the Maharashtra government on the appointment of Lokpal and passage of the anti-corruption Lokayukta Act in the state.

Also read: Modi Talks Big About ‘Zero Corruption’, But the Lokpal is Still Nowhere in Sight

“It has been five years since the Lokpal Act was passed. Yet the Narendra Modi government has not appointed Lokpal…Lokayukta Act has not been passed in Maharashtra for four years,” Hazare observed in a letter dated January 28.

India’s neighbours – China and Pakistan – ranked below it, at 87 and 117 spots, respectively. Additionally, the US slid four points lower, dropping out of the top 20 countries for the first time since 2011.

The group said only 20 countries had significantly improved their scores since 2012, including Argentina and Ivory Coast. Sixteen others, including Australia, Chile and Malta, declined significantly in the same period.

(With agency inputs)

India’s Ranking in Global Corruption Perception Index Slides to 81 from 79

The 2017 index also singled out India as one of the “worst offenders” in the Asia-Pacific region.

A silent protest against corruption scandal in New Delhi. Credit: Reuters/Parivartan Sharma

New Delhi: India has been ranked 81st in the global corruption perception index for 2017, released by Transparency International, which named the country among the “worst offenders” in terms of graft and press freedom in the Asia Pacific region.

The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, placed India at 81. In 2016, India was at 79 among 176 countries.

The index uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

India’s score in the latest ranking, however, remained unchanged at 40. In 2015, the score was 38.

Transparency International said, “In some countries across the region (Asia Pacific), journalists, activists, opposition leaders and even staff of law enforcement or watchdog agencies are threatened, and in the worst cases, even murdered.”

“Philippines, India and the Maldives are among the worst regional offenders in this respect. These countries score high for corruption and have fewer press freedoms and higher numbers of journalist deaths,” it added.

In the last six years, 15 journalists working on corruption stories in these countries were murdered, as reported by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

In the latest ranking, New Zealand and Denmark were placed the highest, with scores of 89 and 88, respectively. On the other hand, Syria, South Sudan and Somalia were ranked lowest with scores of 14, 12 and 9, respectively.

Meanwhile, China with a score of 41 was ranked 77th on the list, while Brazil was placed at 96th with a score of 37 and Russia was at the 135th place with a score of 29.

Further analysis of the results indicates that countries with the least protection for press and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) also tend to have the worst rates of corruption.

The analysis, which incorporates data from CPJ, showed that in the last six years, 9 out of 10 journalists were killed in countries that score 45 or less on the index.

“No activist or reporter should have to fear for their lives when speaking out against corruption. Given current crackdowns on both civil society and the media worldwide, we need to do more to protect those who speak up,” Transparency International managing director Patricia Moreira said.

Switzerland’s Biggest Political Party Threatens to Derail India’s Plan to Get Black Money Data

The Swiss People’s Party has said that India and ten other countries are “too corrupt” and that it will get enough support in the country’s parliament to halt the tax information exchange process.

The Swiss People’s Party has said that India and ten other countries are “too corrupt” and that it will get enough support in the country’s parliament to halt the Indo-Swiss tax information exchange process.

The automatic exchange of tax information treaty has been touted by the Modi government as a major victory against Swiss bank secrecy. Credit: Reuters

Paris: Switzerland’s right-wing and biggest political party has said that “corrupt and authoritarian countries” should not be given access to tax data, in a move that could threaten the country’s automatic information exchange (AIE) treaty with India and ten other nations.

In late 2016, India and Switzerland signed a data-sharing treaty that would have Swiss authorities collect bank data and send it to Indian tax authorities and vice versa. The automatic exchange of tax information was hailed in India as a victory for the Modi government and has been seen globally as an important step in fighting tax evasion and money laundering.

Last week, however, the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) released a list of “corrupt countries” that includes India, Argentina, Brazil, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Colombia, Mexico, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

“We do not want an automatic exchange of bank data with corrupt and unfree states,” said the SVP president, Albert Rösti. Also present at the same press conference was the party’s national councillor, Thomas Matter, who happens to be the owner of a private bank himself. The party claims sharing data with such countries would enable corrupt tax officials to misuse it to threaten and extort clients in collusion with mafia-like structures.

The SVP appears to have used the corruption index of Transparency International and the Democracy Index of the Freedom House Human Rights Organization as indices. “These countries are either highly corrupt or half-dictatorships”, wrote Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzieger.

The SVP claims it will get majority support in Parliament to bring the AIE process to a halt. The Economic Commission of the Deputy Chamber is likely to discuss the AIE in the days to come. The committee consists of 25 members. Eight belong to the right-wing SVP. And, as a handful of political commentators are saying, chances are that the Democratic Christians and Liberal-Radicals will also back the SVP.

Corrupt versus corrupt

According to Julius Baer whistle-blower, Rudolf Elmer, this list includes countries that hold most of the assets within Swiss banks. “Both India and Switzerland will be more than happy that nothing will be revealed,” says Elmer. “There is a lot of talk but no one is ready to walk the talk. It’s the man in the street who gets cheated at the end of the day.”

The process set out by the global standard is supposed to take off next year. Switzerland would have to start collecting bank data and send it to tax authorities of countries with whom it has signed the treaty. The Swiss Federal council had cleared automatic information exchange with 38 countries starting 2018 and another 44 countries the following year.

Switzerland and India signed a joint declaration on November 22, 2016, for the automatic exchange of information on a reciprocal basis. Both countries said they intended to start collecting data in 2018 and to exchange it from 2019 onwards.

“There could eventually be a compromise’” says Bruno Gurtner, a Swiss economist and co-founder of Tax Justice Network. “Maybe they’ll have a kind of special investigation for certain countries before delivering data or blocking automatic information exchange”. Russia, China and Saudi Arabia stand a higher risk than India, Argentina and Brazil, according to Gurtner. The Swiss are likely to be mindful of their export ties with some countries. Whatever the decision, it is likely to be confirmed by the plenum at a later stage.

The countries exchanging information have to guarantee that the data is used solely for tax purposes and is kept confidential. The Swiss government has been under tremendous pressure to ease rules for cases of stolen data as well.

It’s no longer a secret that Switzerland has earned the reputation of being a major “sponsor” of corruption around the world. The Swiss right wing pointing fingers at countries like India for being corrupt is a bit like the pot calling the kettle black. Ironically, this accusation is used to justify depriving these “corrupt countries” of information that could actually help them combat corruption.

Haggling over stolen data

On July 5 2017, the Swiss Federal Administrative court declared that Swiss tax authorities will have to help India with HSBC data related to two Indian clients.

The clients had made an appeal that the information on their accounts should not be shared. It was overruled. The court’s decision says India’s request can be entertained, as long the “principle of good faith is not breached”. The two Indian clients are not named in the judgement. They are likely to be among the Indians named in the public gazette notifications issued online by the Swiss Federal Tax Administration in 2015. This included former Congress minister Preneet Kaur, her son Raninder Singh and industrialist Yash Birla.

The French, who shared the HBSC data with India in the first place, had promised in their negotiations with Switzerland that they would not use HSBC whistle-blower Herve Falciani’s data in AIE requests. India, however, never made such promises. So the court concluded that India hadn’t violated the principle of good faith.

Since India got this information “passively” from the French and not directly from Falciani, the court deems it fit that Switzerland provide assistance. Of course, under certain conditions, the Swiss Federal Supreme court could overrule the decision.

This specific ruling seems rather unprecedented. With strict banking secrecy laws, sharing information based on stolen data is a highly contentious matter in Switzerland.

When Falciani offered help to India in 2015, he didn’t give the data directly to Indian authorities despite the offer of a cash reward. “To avoid the legal trap, it’s in the best interest of administrations to share data with each other” he told The Wire. “I encouraged India to do the same. We have channels that allow investigators to proceed correctly.”

Only very recently (April 2017), the Swiss Supreme Court declined assistance to French authorities regarding the same HSBC data on grounds that they got it from Falciani. However, Falciani explains why the data French authorities have, cannot be considered “stolen”. Immediately after Falciani fled from Geneva to France, Swiss authorities requested the French to seize his data and return it to them.

At the time this data was seized, Falciani had already made a first move towards the French and offered it to them for free. But the fact that the data was found in an official raid makes it admissible in court even if banking secrecy laws disallow use of stolen data. This was something the Swiss unwittingly facilitated. The French did “return” a copy of the data to Switzerland but kept the original as evidence.

Later, France shared bits of Falciani’s data with about 30 countries. Most of them say they are keen to sign an AIE treaty with Switzerland to get more info. If a higher court does not overrule this decision on India, all countries receiving leaked data “passively” should be able to force the Swiss to cooperate.

Regarding the Swiss right wings refusal to engage with certain “corrupt” countries, Falciani says the real problem lies elsewhere. “The real focus is not the due diligence related to public administrations but the failure to set due diligence standards related to banks’ clients.”

Building pressure on Switzerland

“If there really was proper exchange between the countries, there would be no need for any data to be leaked,” says Falciani. “I never shared the data with any country directly but always through channels that respected legal procedures. The rest is political wrangling that aims at distorting the interpretation of the law.”

In August 2016, Elmer revealed that his data had Indian names. A year has lapsed since but the Modi government doesn’t seem to show any interest in investigating this further.

Elmer argues that the data he leaked from Cayman Islands cannot be considered stolen since he was Julius Baer’s compliance officer. According to Elmer one cannot ‘steal’ data one is responsible for. Besides, the Swiss cannot extend their banking secrecy jurisdiction extra-territorially.

Elmer says India can still easily request information from the Swiss High court that gave a verdict in his case. Court documents confirm it has the data. If not, Indian authorities could work with German Tax Authorities in Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, because they have made a copy of the data and investigated the data as well.

The Federal council, Switzerland’s highest executive authority had initiated consultation proceedings on the revision of tax laws in 2015. These were aimed at easing Swiss practices with regard to stolen data. “Partner countries find Switzerland’s current practice too restrictive… the most pertinent illustration is the case of India (HSBC list)”, the Federal council acknowledged in a statement.

In order to pass the OECD peer review, Switzerland has had to convince G-20 nations that it had a genuine intention to change its ways. But the domestic scenario shows that Swiss opinion is deeply divided over the matter.

By its own admission, the Federal council believes, “(The) widespread distribution of the data stolen from HSBC has shed new light on the subject. This disclosure had an additional dimension that made Switzerland’s refusal to cooperate even more difficult to justify, as Switzerland could be perceived to be protecting criminals for the simple reason that they were on a list of stolen data.”

The decisions of the different Swiss courts are ambivalent. Even though the Swiss government says it wants to comply with global standard, the process remains blocked as the powerful players of the Swiss financial industry see this as a real threat.

Whistle-blower Elmer says, “The Swiss financial industry and particularly the private sector would loose so much dubious business or to be blunt- profit. That is simply the truth and the driving force behind all the retaliation against truth tellers”

The AIE standard itself is seen by experts as riddled with loopholes (the US is not even a signatory). The most effective solutions are often the simplest to implement (unlike the multinational AIE). However, it’s still seen as a first major, concerted global move to tackle the problem of tax evasion and money laundering. Political leaders around the world no longer feel they can afford to be seen as taking no action.

Military Corruption Undermines Nigeria’s Battle Against Boko Haram, Says Watchdog

Last year, around $15 billion was stolen from the public purse under the previous Nigerian government through fraudulent arms procurement deals.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau speaks at an unknown location in this still image taken from an undated video released by Nigerian Islamist rebel group Boko Haram. Credit: Reuters/Boko Haram handout via Reuters TV

Lagos: Military corruption is weakening Nigeria’s efforts to battle the Islamist insurgency of Boko Haram, the watchdog Transparency International said on Thursday (May 18).

Its report underlines the difficulty of achieving two key promises of President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2015 election campaign: tackling endemic corruption and defeating an insurgency that has claimed over 20,000 lives and displaced millions.

“Corrupt military officials have been able to benefit from the conflict through the creation of fake defence contracts, the proceeds of which are often laundered abroad in the UK, US and elsewhere,” the watchdog said in a statement.

Last year, Nigeria’s vice president said around $15 billion had been stolen from the public purse under the previous government through fraudulent arms procurement deals.

Transparency International said this had left the military “without vital equipment, insufficiently trained, low in morale and under-resourced”.

“This has crippled the Nigerian military in fighting an aggressive ideologically inspired enemy such as Boko Haram,” the watchdog said, pointing to cases of soldiers taking on the militants without ammunition or fuel.

A defence spokesman said the allegations were false for the current crop of military officers.

“A lot has been done to train, boost troops’ morale and procure vital equipment through due process,” said Major General John Enenche, adding that the military “will continue to get better with the right kind of leadership that we have today”.

The military says it has recaptured much of the territory claimed by Boko Haram since the conflict began in 2009. But the reclaimed areas are often razed towns, or islands of relative safety and highways connecting them to larger cities.

Much of the territory away from the roads is still dangerous, and Boko Haram attacks remain frequent.

The report also said countries such as the US could encourage defence reform by withholding arms, such as the planned sale of up to a dozen Super Tucano A-29 aircraft to help the fight against Boko Haram.

Transparency International said Nigeria should make its defence budget and procurement systems more transparent to ensure that contracts were not inflated, or given to shell companies to conceal the true beneficiary.

Populism Is the Wrong Medicine to Fight Inequality, Corruption

Populist leaders are using the corruption-inequality message to drum up support without an actual intention of tackling the problem.

The rain has not stopped the ever-growing weekly torch marches organised by the Outraged Opposition citizen movement in the capital of Honduras and 50 other cities around the country. The peaceful protests are demanding the creation of International Commission Against Impunity, to combat corruption and strengthen democracy. Credit: Thelma Mejía/IPS

Berlin: 2016 showed that around the world, systemic corruption and social inequality reinforce each other, leading to popular disenchantment with political establishments and providing a fertile ground for the rise of populist politicians, warns a new report by an international anti-corruption watchdog.

In its report Corruption Perceptions Index 2016, released on Wednesday, January 25, Transparency International (TI) says that 69% of the 176 countries scored below 50, on a scale from zero (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean), exposing how massive and pervasive public sector corruption is around the world.

This year, more countries declined in the index than improved, showing the need for urgent action, reports this global movement with one vision – a world free of corruption – working in more than 100 countries.

According to the Berlin-based TI, corruption and inequality feed off each other, creating a vicious circle of corruption, unequal distribution of power in society and unequal distribution of wealth.

As the Panama Papers showed, TI adds, it is still far too easy for the rich and powerful to exploit the opaqueness of the global financial system to enrich themselves at the expense of the public good.

“In too many countries, people are deprived of their most basic needs and go to bed hungry every night because of corruption, while the powerful and corrupt enjoy lavish lifestyles with impunity,” said José Ugaz, Chair of Transparency International.

“We do not have the luxury of time. Corruption needs to be fought with urgency so that the lives of people across the world improve,” added Ugaz.

Grand corruption cases, from Petrobras and Odebrecht in Brazil to Ukrainian ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, show how collusion between businesses and politicians denies national economies of billions of dollars of revenues that were siphoned off to benefit the few at the expense of the many, TI stressed.

“This kind of systemic grand corruption violates human rights, prevents sustainable development and fuels social exclusion.”

“Brazil’s score on the index, for example, has significantly declined compared to five years ago as one corruption scandal after another involving top politicians and businesspeople was uncovered. Yet the country has shown this year that through the work of independent law enforcement bodies it is possible to hold to account those previously considered untouchable.”

Populism, wrong medicine

People are fed up by too many politicians’ empty assurances to tackle corruption and many are turning towards populist politicians who promise to change the system and break the cycle of corruption and privilege. “Yet this is likely to only exacerbate the issue.”

“In countries with populist or autocratic leaders, we often see democracies in decline and a disturbing pattern of attempts to crack down on civil society, limit press freedom and weaken the independence of the judiciary. Instead of tackling crony capitalism, those leaders usually install even worse forms of corrupt systems,” said Ugaz.

“Only where there is freedom of expression, transparency in all political processes and strong democratic institutions, can civil society and the media hold those in power to account and corruption be fought successfully.”

The index scores of Hungary and Turkey – countries that have seen the rise of autocratic leaders – have dropped in recent years. In contrast, the score of Argentina, which has ousted a populist government, is starting to improve.

What needs to be done

Technical fixes to specific anti-corruption legislation are not enough, according to TI, a world movement that, from villages in rural India to the corridors of power in Brussels, aims to gives voice to the victims and witnesses of corruption.

“What is urgently needed are deep-rooted systemic reforms that even up the growing imbalance of power and wealth by empowering citizens to stop the widespread impunity for corruption, hold the powerful to account and have a real say in the decisions that affect their daily lives.”

“You do not represent us” says one demonstrator’s sign in a street protest in Málaga in southern Spain. Credit: Inés Benítez/IPS

These reforms, adds TI, must include the disclosure through public registries of who owns companies as well as sanctions for professional enablers who are complicit in moving corrupt money flows across borders.

The results

TI’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2016 covers perceptions of public sector corruption in 176 countries.

Denmark and New Zealand performed best with scores of 90, closely followed by Finland (89) and Sweden (88). Although no country is free of corruption, the countries at the top share characteristics of open government, press freedom, civil liberties and independent judicial systems, according to TI.

For the tenth year running, Somalia is the worst performer on the index, this year scoring only ten. South Sudan is second to the bottom with a score of 11, followed by North Korea (12) and Syria (13). Countries at the bottom of the index are characterised by widespread impunity for corruption, poor governance and weak institutions.

Countries in troubled regions, particularly in the Middle East, have seen the most substantial drops this year. Qatar is the biggest decliner compared to the 2015 index with a drop of ten scores. “The FIFA scandals, the investigations into the decision to host the World Cup in 2022 in Qatar and reports of human rights abuses for migrant workers have clearly affected the perception of the country,” said Ugaz.

TI’s Finn Heinrich commented that with the launch of Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2016 just five days after Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president, it’s timely to look at the links between populism, socio-economic malaise and the anti-corruption agenda.

“Indeed, Trump and many other populist leaders regularly make a connection between a ‘corrupt elite’ interested only in enriching themselves and their [rich] supporters and the marginalisation of ‘working people’.”

Is there evidence to back this up? Heinrich asks, and answers “Yes. Corruption and social inequality are indeed closely related and provide a source for popular discontent. Yet, the track record of populist leaders in tackling this problem is dismal; they use the corruption-inequality message to drum up support but have no intention of tackling the problem seriously.”

Corruption Worsens Under Populist Leaders says Transparency International

In its annual Corruption Perceptions Index for 2016 the anti-corruption watchdog observed that populist leaders promising to end corruption may in fact be feeding it.

FILE - In this Thursday, May 12, 2016 file photo, Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, from left, Jose Ugaz, Transparency International, Daria Kaleniuk and Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg take part in a panel discussion at the Anti-Corruption Summit in London. Watchdog group Transparency International on Wednesday Jan. 25, 2017, is warning that people who turn to populist politicians who promise to change systems and end corruption may only be feeding the problem. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, Pool, File)

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, from left, Jose Ugaz, Transparency International, Daria Kaleniuk and Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg take part in a panel discussion at the Anti-Corruption Summit in London. Credit: AP Photo/Frank Augstein/Pool/File)

Berlin: People who turn to populist politicians promising to upset the status quo and end corruption may only be feeding the problem, an anti-corruption watchdog group warned on January 25.

Transparency International said in its annual Corruption Perceptions Index for 2016 that in countries with populist or autocratic leaders, “instead of tackling crony capitalism, those leaders usually install even worse forms of corrupt systems.”

The group’s board chairman, Jose Ugaz, cited Hungary and Turkey as examples. Their scores have worsened in recent years under leaders with authoritarian leanings, while Argentina, which ousted a populist government, has improved in the rankings, he said.

Based on expert opinions of public sector corruption, the annual report rated Denmark and New Zealand as the least-corrupt countries, followed by Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and Norway. Somalia was ranked most corrupt, followed by South Sudan, North Korea, and Syria.

Rounding out the top 10 least corrupt were Singapore, Netherlands, Canada, and the tie-placing trio of Germany, Luxembourg and the UK in the number 10 spot. The US placed 18th, down from 16th in 2015.

Transparency International research director Finn Heinrich told the Associated Press that the organisation was taking a wait-and-see approach to Donald Trump’s presidency, but that already it had “serious concerns.”

“Donald Trump came on board as the people in Hungary and Turkey, on an anti-corruption ticket. He said, ‘We’re going to drain this swamp,'” Heinrich said. “But if you look at his action so far, there is nepotism…. The people in his cabinet have many conflicts of interest. They are not people who stand for transparency.”

The index scores countries on a range of factors, such as whether government officials are held to account or go unpunished for corruption, the perceived prevalence of bribery and whether public institutions respond to citizens’ needs.

Nearly 70% of the 176 countries scored below 50 on the 100-point scale, with a zero meaning that a country is perceived to be highly corrupt and 100 indicating it’s perceived to be very clean.

“This year, more countries declined in the index than improved, showing the need for urgent action,” the report said.

The country that dropped most sharply in the rankings was Qatar, which has faced criticism over alleged human rights abuses involving migrant construction workers since it was chosen to host the 2022 World Cup of soccer. It dropped 10 points, falling to 31st on the list from 22nd last year.

Still, Heinrich said Qatar’s government has in the past shown itself “willing and keen” to fight corruption, and that Transparency would appeal to them for more fundamental reforms to ensure better freedom of speech and more media freedom, among other things.

“You can’t fight corruption without having accountability and transparency in the entire public process,” he said.

Afghanistan, a perennial fixture near the bottom of the list, improved the most in 2016. Its score on the Transparency International index rose four points, but still was ranked 169th, just ahead of Libya, Sudan and Yemen.

(AP)

Six Indian States Have Not Convicted Anyone for Corruption in 15 Years, Says Report

A study by Transparency International found that very few cases of corruption are registered in India, with even fewer convictions.

Schoolchildren protest against corruption. Credit: Reuters/Files

India ranks 76th among 168 countries surveyed by Transparency International, which studies how corrupt people think their governments are. The 2015 study used data collected on corruption in the country, which, however, remains poor and unreliable and dependent greatly on the state’s willingness to both maintain and share records.

Despite there being both collusive and coercive corruption at all levels, the data available with the National Crime Records Bureau from 2001 to 2015 shows that the number of cases registered for heinous crimes like murder, robbery and kidnapping actually exceeded the registered cases of corruption.

At a meet on ‘Fact and Fiction: Government’s Efforts to Combat Corruption’ organised by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) in New Delhi, several RTI activists spoke about how despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s repeated assertions of fighting corruption, few serious attempts appear to have been made to root out graft through basic benchmarking and implementation of legislations.

As Venkatesh Nayak of CHRI put it, “The data available with NHRC [National Human Rights Commission] over the years does not indicate the popular perception about corruption.” He said there is neither “certainty of punishment at the end of the process” nor do people feel confident about filing the complaints as a consequence of which “sunvai nahin hote” (there is no proper hearing).

Nayak pointed out that during the last 15 years “corruption cases did not even constitute 1 % of the total number of crimes registered in the country”. He said, “While the Indian Penal Code 1860 lists offences of bribery involving public servants and the offence of bribing voters during elections with prison terms of between three months and three years and, the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 also covers all levels of government across the country except Jammu and Kashmir – which has its own special law against graft in Ranbir Penal code – very little information about the impact of these was available in the public domain in a consolidated manner.”

He said much of the information available now was thanks to the Centre’s initiative of 2012, formulating the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy. The Open Government Data Team of the National Informatics Centre created a digital platform for making these datasets widely available. CHRI was able to analyse to see how the states were penalising individuals who commit corruption-related offences and that they were able to compare incidences of corruption with major offences likes murder, kidnapping and robbery.

However, the analyses threw up several questions about the inadequacy of the data. It was revealed that in the 15 year period, a total of 54,139 cases of corruption were registered in the 29 states and seven union territories. But fewer cases were registered in bigger states like Uttar Pradesh (968) and Bihar (1,179) as against smaller ones like Kerala (2,464), Haryana (2,446) and Himachal Pradesh (1,080). Also, states with a higher population of tribals, despite their tribal-wealth related issues, posted fewer complaints. So while Chhattisgarh reported just 560 cases, Jharkhand was even lower at 509.

Among the northeastern states, Meghalaya reported just 15 cases, Tripura 28 and Manipur 32. But the big surprise was West Bengal which reported only 39 cases of corruption in 15 years. Surely the state which witnessed the Saradha chit fund scam would have had more?

With the number of cases of kidnapping being 11 times more than that of corruption cases and, the cases of murder being ten times more, while robbery was six times more – it was quite evident that there was gross underreporting of corruption cases. “This comparison seems to indicate a severe lack of public confidence in the ability of the anti-corruption agencies to investigate a complaint of corruption, collect evidence and put the case up for trial,” said Nayak.

The analyses also revealed that trials were completed in only 55.26 % of the registered cases. Haryana topped the list with 86.10%. Meghalaya again lagged behind, not managing to complete trials for any of the 15 cases it had registered. Similarly, none of the 66 cases registered in Arunachal Pradesh had completed trials. Bihar, which registered very few cases, also lagged behind with just 8.82% when it came to completed trials.

When it came to conviction, the national average stood at 35.33% for the cases put up for trial and 18.94% of those in which complaints were registered.

But as former chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah put it, the low conviction rate should not be used to “place too much relevance on the proportion of corruption” for as he put it, “while corruption is endemic in our system, often made up charges are levelled to settle political or bureaucratic vendetta”.

Speaking from personal experience as an IAS officer from Jammu and Kashmir, he said, “There were so many cases in the state which were just used to victimise honest officers.” Incidentally, the data also showed that 90% of those accused were acquitted in Jammu and Kashmir.

But as Nayak said, the malaise runs deep and this was reflected in the fact that despite several cases going to trial, no convictions were reported from West Bengal, Goa, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and Meghalaya –and only one case resulted in a conviction in Manipur in the 15 year period.

Anjali Bharadwaj of the Satark Nagrik Sangathan and the National Campaign For People’s Right to Information spoke about how convictions can be secured in cases of corruption. The amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act, which is pending in parliament, is of grave importance. In its absence, she said the whole notion of accountability is being turned on its head. “We do not see any action to bring in any amendment or to operationalise existing legislations to fight graft,” she said.

Even when it came to the Act, she cautioned that those who give bribes should not be victimised as the amended law seeks to punish people for giving bribe. “So if someone gives a bribe to gets his child treated, he or she would become liable for punishment. It is being proposed that if the person voluntarily deposes that he had paid a bribe within a week of doing so, action would not be initiated. But who would actually be able to do so? There is no distinction in the new law between collusive and coercive bribe-giving”.

Her colleague Amrita Johri said Modi has only recently begun urging people to inform the government about black money. But, she said, the government has not acted on implementing the Whistleblowers Protection Act, which was legislated to provide protection to whistleblowers. “Nearly 50-60 people connected to the Vyapam scam died mysteriously and we have not operationalised the Act. Two new amendments were brought to it – through the Whistleblowers Protection (Amendment) Bill – but no one knows the status. The minister [of state in the prime minister’s office, Jitendra Singh] has stated that it was referred to a parliamentary committee, RTI has revealed that it was not true.”

Similarly, the Prevention of Corruption Amendment Bill is pending while the Prevention of Bribery of Foreign Public Servants Bill, Grievance Redress Bill and National Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, all of which have lapses, need to be revived.

The RTI activists have demanded that key pieces of legislation be restored, operationalised or amended – as the need may be – to ensure that whistleblowers are protected so that the fight against corruption can be strengthened.

Credibility of Brazil’s Interim President Collapses as He Receives Eight-Year Ban on Running for Office

Michel Temer has been formally convicted of violating election laws for spending his own funds on his campaign in excess of what is permitted.

Brazil’s interim President Michel Temer reacts during the inauguration ceremony of new presidents of state companies, at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, June 1, 2016. Credit: Reuters/Ueslei Marcelino

It has been obvious from the start that a core objective of the impeachment of Brazil’s elected president, Dilma Rousseff, was to empower the actual thieves in Brasilia and enable them to impede, obstruct and ultimately kill the ongoing Car Wash investigation (as well as to impose a neoliberal agenda of privatisation and radical austerity). A mere 20 days into the seizure of power by the corruption-implicated “interim” President Michel Temer, overwhelming evidence has emerged proving that to be true: Already, two of the interim ministers in Temer’s all-white-male cabinet, including his anti-corruption minister, have been forced to resign after the emergence of secret recordings showing them plotting to obstruct that investigation (an investigation in which they, along with one-third of his cabinet, are personally implicated).

But the oozing corruption of Temer’s ministers has sometimes served to obscure his own. He, too, is implicated in several corruption investigations. And now, he has been formally convicted of violating election laws and, as punishment, is banned from running for any political office for eight years. On June 5, a regional election court in Sao Paulo, where he’s from, issued a formal decree finding him guilty and declaring him “ineligible” to run for any political office as a result of now having a “dirty record” in elections. Temer was found guilty of spending his own funds on his campaign in excess of what the law permits.

In the scope of the scheming, corruption and illegality from this interim government, Temer’s law-breaking is not the most severe offence. But it potently symbolises the anti-democratic scam that Brazilian elites have attempted to perpetrate. In the name of corruption, they have removed the country’s democratically elected leader and replaced her with someone who — though not legally barred from being installed — is now barred for eight years from running for the office he wants to occupy.

Just weeks ago, Dilma’s impeachment appeared inevitable. Brazil’s oligarchical media had effectively focused attention solely on her. But then, everyone started looking at who was engineering her impeachment, who would be empowered, what their motives were — and everything changed. Now her impeachment, though still likely, does not look nearly as inevitable: Last week, O Globo reported that two senators previously in favour were now re-considering in light of “new facts” (the revealed tapes of Temer’s ministers), and yesterday, Folha similarly reported that numerous senators are considering changing their minds. Notably, Brazilian media outlets stopped publishing polling data about the public’s views of Temer and Dilma’s impeachment.

Meanwhile, opposition grows to this attack on democracy both domestically and internationally. Protests aimed at Temer are becoming increasingly large and intense. Two dozen members of the British Parliament denounced impeachment as a coup. Three dozen members of the European Parliament urged termination of trade negotiations with Brazil’s interim government on the ground that it lacks legitimacy. The anti-corruption group Transparency International announced it was terminating dialogue with the new government until it purged corruption from its new ministries. The New York Times this week, reporting on the resignation of the anti-corruption minister only 20 days after he was installed, described it as “another blow to a government that seems to limp from one scandal to the next just weeks after Mr. Temer replaced Dilma Rousseff.”

But perhaps nothing quite captures the dangerous farce that Brazilian elites are attempting to perpetrate like the fact that their chosen leader is now literally banned from running for the office into which he has been installed because he has been convicted of breaking the law. This isn’t merely the destruction of democracy in the world’s fifth most populous country, nor the imposition of an agenda of privatisation and attacks on the poor for the benefit of international plutocrats. It’s literally the empowerment of dirty, corrupt operators — outside of democratic norms — cynically undertaken in the name of combating corruption.

On June 5 at an event in Rio de Janeiro, I was asked — as I always am at such events — about possible US involvement in the change of government. Here are four minutes of my answer:

This article was originally published in The Intercept. Read the original article here.