Egypt lost positions on the global corruption perception index due to its failure to implement anti-corruption measures, Nesma Nowar reports One of the main complaints of Egyptians who took to the streets last January was the deep-seated corruption in Egypt. This is confirmed by findings of the Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2011 with Egypt deteriorating from 98th place in 2010 to 112th in 2011 out of a total of 182 countries. Egypt scored 2.9 on a scale of zero to 10, with 10 perceived as the least corrupt, while zero is viewed as highly corrupt. The CPI ranks countries based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be and it draws on 17 data sources from 13 institutions. According to director of the Arab Centre for Integrity and Transparency, Shehata Mohamed Shehata, Egypt's deteriorating ranking came as no surprise. He stated that since Egypt signed the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), which is recognised as the most powerful legal instrument aimed at combating corruption, in 2003, it failed to embark on concrete measures to fight corruption. Most notably, Egypt did not establish an authority for combating corruption. "I have no clue why Egyptian officials have been always refusing to establish such authority," Shehata told Al-Ahram Weekly. "Even after the 25 January Revolution, Essam Sharaf's government also refused to establish it." He added that most Arab states have already established an authority for combating corruption including Palestine. Another major factor behind Egypt's deteriorating ranking, Shehata said, is the delay in issuing important anti-corruption laws, namely a law on the conflict of interest, a freedom of information act and a law for the protection of witnesses in case they reported on acts of corruption. Shehata added that there is no law that fights the corruption of top public officials. "When government officials sold state lands through direct allocation instead of public auctions, they knew they would not be punished." According to Transparency International, Egypt loses $37 billion annually as a result of corruption. Nonetheless, Ashraf Abdel-Wahab, acting minister of administrative development, believes that Egypt's deteriorated ranking does not necessarily mean that corruption has increased. However, he attributed the decline to the fact that people, after the revolution, have become more aware of corruption. He also believes that, before the revolution, there were several supervising bodies that were set to fight corruption and supervise the actions of the government, however the problem was in the laws regulating these bodies. He explained that these bodies supervise the government and at the same time report to it. "That's why these supervisory bodies are ineffective," he told the Weekly. "They should report to parliament." And while one would have expected corruption to fall after the revolution, Shehata believes that as a result of the uprising, junior government employees could be increasingly corrupt. "After the revolution, government employees are no longer afraid of their seniors and they believe they could revolt and topple them anytime if they stand in their way." As a signatory to the UNCAC, Shehata states that Egypt would receive a delegation from the United Nations in 2012 in order to inspect its performance in taking the needed measures for combating corruption. According to Shehata, no measures have yet been taken to promote transparency. He believes the first thing the new government should do is establish the authority for combating corruption which should work on restructuring the laws to include provisions for combating corruption and it should have representatives in all governmental entities and governorates. Egypt's low score in the CPI was replicated in the showings of other Arab countries which saw upheavals in 2011. Most Arab Spring countries rank in the lower half of the index, scoring below four. Transparency International attributed this to the fact that most Arab countries have nepotism, bribery and patronage so deeply ingrained in daily life that even existing anti-corruption laws had little impact. Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring, fell to 73rd place from 59th last year, with its CPI score dropping to 3.8 from 4.3. Syria slipped to 129th from 127th. Yemen and Libya shared 146th place last year and dropped to 164th and 168th respectively. Qatar ranked first among Arab countries and the Middle East Region and ranked 22nd in the global list scoring 7.2 followed by the United Arab Emirates scoring 6.8, hitting 28th place. North Korea and Somalia were judged as the most corrupt countries, putting them at the bottom of the index. Meanwhile, New Zealand was graded the least corrupt followed by Denmark and Sweden.
