The Voice of Mirza Xazar

Oil, corruption go hand in hand

London - Oil wealth and corruption go hand in hand, and oil companies should provide more information about their dealings to help clean up the market, Transparency International (TI) said on Wednesday in its annual survey of global corruption. Of 146 countries in the survey, 106 scored lower than 5 compared with a best score of 10, the organisation said. Bangladesh, Haiti, Nigeria, Chad, Myanmar, Azerbaijan and Paraguay were perceived to be the most corrupt, all scoring lower than 2. "As the corruption perceptions index (CPI) 2004 shows, oil-rich Angola, Azerbaijan, Chad, Ecuador, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya, Nigeria, Russia, Sudan, Venezuela and Yemen all have extremely low scores," TI's chairperson Peter 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," he said. Eigen said oil companies could help stamp out corruption by publishing details of the fees, royalties and other payments made to governments and state oil companies. "Access to this vital information will minimise opportunities for hiding the payment of kickbacks to secure oil tenders, a practice that has blighted the oil industry in transition and postwar economies," he said. 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. Finland, New Zealand, Denmark, Iceland, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland were rated the least corrupt, all scoring higher than 9 out of 10 on the index. Compared with last year's report, corruption was perceived to be worse in Bahrain, Belize, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Oman, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, and Trinidad and Tobago. Improved scores were recorded for Austria, Botswana, Czech Republic, El Salvador, France, Gambia, Germany, Jordan, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, United Arab Emirates and Uruguay, Transparency International said. Finance24