The perception that Jamaica is corrupt has worsened in the past year, pushing its ranking on Transparency International's Corruption Perception index to 74 out of 146 countries, down 17 places from its 2003 position.
The slippage comes despite efforts by Jamaica to, among other measures, deepen its anti-money laundering laws and implement other legislation that allows easier access to government information and mandates different categories of public sector workers to declare their earnings.Transparency International (TI) has bundled Jamaica with countries such as Bahrain, Belize, Cyprus, the Dominican Republic, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Oman, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, and Trinidad & Tobago that have shown an increase in corruption.
Each report, published annually in the month of October, is based on surveys done over three years. The 2004 report, for example, covered surveys done between 2002 and 2004, according to TI.
This latest report shows that Jamaica has scored five-tenths of a point less than it did last year.
The report, which highlights corruption among politicians, gave Jamaica a score of 3.3 out of 10. In 2003, Jamaica achieved a score of 3.8, two-tenths of a point less than 2002 when the island scored a level four.
But the latest ranking also placed Jamaica fourth out of six Caribbean nations with Barbados topping the region - ranking 21st with a score of 7.3.
The tiny island is followed by Suriname at position 49 with 4.3 points, Trinidad and Tobago with 4.2 points, ranking 51st with El Salvador and the Czech Republic, while Cuba is ranked at 62nd with Panama, both countries achieving a score of 3.7.
The other Caribbean nations on the list are the Dominican Republic, ranking 87th with Iran and Romania with scores of 2.9, and Haiti, which sits at the bottom of the pile, with Bangladesh, each with a score of 1.5 behind oil-rich Nigeria at 1.6, Chad and Myanmar at 1.7 each.
A score of 10 indicates that a country is highly clean, with Finland holding the top spot at 9.7 points, while a score of 0 indicates that it is highly corrupt.
Transparency International's index is compiled from a series of polls on perceptions of corruption made by independent organisations. This year's report is based on 18 surveys, conducted since 2002, by a dozen organisations. The index rates only those countries which appear in three or more surveys.
According to its latest report, 106 out of the 146 countries surveyed scored less than five against a clean score of 10, while 60 countries scored less than three out of 10, indicating "rampant corruption".
"Corruption in large-scale public projects is a daunting obstacle to sustainable development, and results in a major loss of public funds needed for education, health care and poverty alleviation, both in developed and developing countries," said TI chairman Peter Eigen.
"If we hope to reach the Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2015, governments need to seriously tackle corruption in public contracting," he noted.
TI estimates that the amount lost due to bribery in government procurement is at least US$400 billion per year worldwide.
According to the latest report, oil wealth and corruption go hand in hand and it urged oil companies to provide more information about their dealings.
"As the Corruption Perceptions Index 2004 shows, oil-rich Angola, Azerbaijan, Chad, Ecuador, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya, Nigeria, Russia, Sudan, Venezuela and Yemen all have extremely low scores," Eigen said.
"In these countries, public contracting in the oil sector is plagued by revenues vanishing into the pockets of Western oil executives, middlemen and local officials," Eigen added.
