WBI Governance & Anti-Corruption - Press Releases & Media Coverage: Governance Matters VI

In a study by the World Bank Institute on 212 countries from 1996 - 2006, Brunei Darussalam achieved percentile rankings of 50 and above in five dimensions, including political stability at 92.8; regulatory quality at 80; government effectiveness at 72; and control of corruption 63.4. These are strong fundamentals for sound and enabling business environment.

According to research done by Dr Talat Anwar formerly Senior Economist at UNDP, Centre for Research on Poverty and Income Distribution, Planning Commission, who analysed the trends in poverty and governance as good governance has been one of the important pillars of Pakistan's poverty reduction strategy pursued by the government since 2000. The research paper states while no survey data exists in Pakistan on governance indicators, the author analysed Governance Indicators Data by World Bank (2005), which cover more than 200 countries, obtained from dozens of institutions worldwide. Evidence shows that percentile rank of Pakistan's governance indicators were placed in the bottom range in 1998. However, the percentile ranks of Pakistan in all dimensions of governance worsened persistently further between 1998 and 2005 except the government effectiveness.

The PPP regime is intrinsically corrupt. On March 11, 2008, the US State Department issued a report on Guyana which said "The law provides for criminal penalties for official corruption; however the government did not implement the law…. The World Bank's worldwide governance indicators reflected that government corruption was a serious problem. There was a widespread public perception of serious corruption in the government, including law enforcement and the judicial system."

The United States Department of State has painted a bleak picture of human rights violations in the Caribbean. In its "US Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2007," released this month, the State Department accused the region of a number of violations, ranging from excessive use of force by police, to poor prison conditions, to discrimination and violence against women. "According to the World Bank’s worldwide governance indicators, government corruption was a problem," it added.

On the very next day, word was received that in Washington, D.C. the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) judged the Philippines "Compact Eligible" for a large poverty reduction grant based on, among other things, an acceptable "control of corruption" score. The MCC relies on outside measurements as it assesses countries’ eligibility for a "Compact." "Control of corruption" comes from the World Bank Institute, and the MCC had earlier expressed concern that the Philippines had dropped from the 76th percentile to the 57th (50% is passing grade for the MCC).

Dodgy facts are easy to produce, but hard to refute. They're usually not...
New Zealand Herald (New Zealand), 16 March 2008

But while these accountability measures are failing, the public service is not, according to the World Bank. Its Worldwide Governance Indicators collates survey data on governments around the world and ranks them on six key dimensions, including "Government Effectiveness". This measures the "quality of public services, the quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government's commitment to such policies". The indicator took a dive in the late 90s when New Zealand's civil servants thinned out, hitting rock bottom in 2000, but recovered when the bureaucrats started coming back. The bureaucracy, it seems, might have made a difference to the health of the whole public service. In 2006, New Zealand ranked 8th out of 212 countries for Government effectiveness. In 2000, New Zealand was 19th out of 196 countries - our lowest ranking since the series started in 1996.

On Government Corruption and Transparency, the report said; "The law provides for criminal penalties for official corruption; however the government did not implement the law effectively. The World Bank's worldwide governance indicators reflected that government corruption was a serious problem. There was a widespread public perception of serious corruption in the government, including law enforcement and the judicial system."

The report also dealt with the issue of Government Corruption and Transparency and said that according to the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators, government corruption was a serious problem. There was corruption in all three branches of government, as well as various bureaucratic agencies. Transparency International (TI) identified nepotism and cronyism in the appointment of officials to government and state owned institutions.

(Excerpt from report released by State Department - 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices)
The government provides criminal penalties for official corruption, but they were seldom enforced. According to the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators, government corruption was a serious problem.

“I was a traditional trade and labour economist until 1992,” says Daniel Kaufmann, now head of the World Bank Institute's Global Governance group. “When I went to Ukraine, my outlook changed. Problems with governance and the rule of law were undermining all our efforts.” Pretty quickly, “governance”—political accountability and the quality of bureaucracy as well as the rule of law—became all the rage. Economists got busy calculating what it was, how well countries were doing it and what a difference it made. Mr Kaufmann and his colleague Aart Kraay worked out the “300% dividend”: in the long run, a country's income per head rises by roughly 300% if it improves its governance by one standard deviation.

Now, the Worldwide Governance Indicators project—“one of the best kept secrets at the World Bank”, believes Gordon Johnson, a grand old man of aid-giving—is the state of the art. It gathers data on more than 60 indicators (the extent of crime, the quality of police, judicial independence and so on) to create rule-of-law and governance measures for virtually every country in the world. Aggregating like this (and being honest about the margin of error), says Mr Kaufmann, is far from perfect, but is a decent approximation.

Perhaps growth helps the rule of law, not vice versa. Perhaps countries can afford the luxury of the rule of law only after they have grown rich. The persistence of “frontier justice” into the 1930s in America gives a colour of plausibility to that idea. Yet it is not Mr Kaufmann's view. He argues that rule-of-law improvements tend to help growth; that few countries have sustained gains in growth without improving their rule of law; and that places that have grown without such improvement have subsequently lurched backwards (Argentina used to be one of the ten richest countries in the world).

(Excerpt from report released by State Department - 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices)
The government provides criminal penalties for official corruption, but they were seldom enforced. According to the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators, government corruption was a serious problem.

(Excerpt from report released by State Department - 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices)
The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption. The World Bank's worldwide governance indicators reflected that corruption was a serious problem, although there were some government efforts to curb it during the year. The president often spoke against corruption, and leading political and administrative figures faced harsh sentences on charges of corruption and wrongdoing. On March 12, the National Assembly adopted a code of conduct in an effort to allow for greater accountability and transparency in the legislature.

(Excerpt from report released by State Department - 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices)
The law mandates criminal penalties for official corruption; however, the government did not implement the law effectively, and officials often engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. The Worldwide Governance Indicators of the World Bank reflect that corruption was a problem.

US Report on Nepal's Human Rights Practices
Nepal Monitor (USA), 12 March 2008

(Excerpt from report released by State Department - 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices)
The law provides for an anticorruption authority, the Commission for the Investigation of the Abuse of Authority (CIAA), which is mandated to investigate official acts of corruption. The CIAA claimed it had an 80 percent success rate concerning corruption cases it filed, but some cases involving politicians were not filed or were defeated in court. The World Bank's worldwide governance indicators suggested that corruption was a severe problem in the country.

(Excerpt from report released by State Department - 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices)
The World Bank's worldwide governance indicators reflect that corruption was a serious problem. Budgetary problems persisted, but the government continued to make steady improvements, and auditors found fewer faults than in previous years.

Gov't offered 'anecdotal' evidence for ads withdrawal from SN
Stabroek News (Guyana), 12 March 2008

Noting that the World Bank's worldwide governance indicators reflected that government corruption was a serious problem, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor report said there was a widespread public perception of serious corruption in the government, including law enforcement and the judicial system.

(Excerpt from report released by State Department - 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices)
The World Bank's 2006 governance indicators perceived corruption in the country as a problem. There were reports of petty corruption within the executive branch, largely based on family connections. There were unconfirmed reports of more serious corruption among military leaders involving illicit trade and the appropriation of houses. There were reports that individuals requesting exit visas or passports had to pay bribes.

The US Department of State said "there was a perception of widespread corruption at all levels of the government," and reminded that the World Bank's worldwide governance indicators reflected that government corruption in Venezuela was a severe problem for development.

Since 1996, the World Bank has compiled the Worldwide Governance Indicators for 212 countries or territories. The indicators are: "Voice and Accountability," "Political Stability and Absence of Violence," "Government Effectiveness," "Regulatory Quality," "Rule of Law" and "Control of Corruption." Compared with 1996, Taiwan has seen a sharp drop in its rankings in control of corruption and political stability. Its performance in terms of rule of law, accountability and regulatory quality also showed signs of regression. The country only rated well in government effectiveness.

Sustainable growth, good governance
BusinessWorld (Philippines), 27 February 2008

Low DFIs is largely due to low investor confidence, which stems from poor governance concerns, in particular, corruption and political stability. Using the World Bank governance indicators data set, corruption in the Philippines has worsened. Using the same data set, political stability has likewise deteriorated. The Philippines is now ranked as the most politically unstable among ASEAN countries - that is, the Philippines is more politically unstable than Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Liechtenstein has a tax code that rewards productive behavior, and it is now the world's third-richest jurisdiction according to the World Bank. German tax laws, by contrast, are rated among the world's worst by the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report. Liechtenstein has privacy laws that respect individual rights, but which also have received a green light from the Financial Action Task Force and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for being tough on dirty money. Perhaps most interesting, Liechtenstein scores highly on the World Bank's six governance indicators, beating out nations such as -- you guessed it -- Germany.

The October 2007 Pulse Asia survey results revealed that a majority of Filipinos regard Mrs. Arroyo as the most corrupt President in history. In addition, the ability of the Philippine government to control corruption has worsened in her watch, according to statistics gathered by the World Bank for its Worldwide Governance Indicators from 1996 to 2006 for about 200 countries.

In the World Bank's governance indicators for 2006, the effectiveness of Russia 's government was ranked in the 38th percentile from the bottom. Its rule of law ranking was in the 19th percentile, well behind Ukraine 's 27th and Poland 's 59th. If one judges a state by its ability to serve the people and protect them from the powerful, including itself, Russia 's is ineffective.

Minto's ragings directed at the wrong person
Pretoria News (South Africa), 8 February 2008

But the storm continued to rage, with Minto further securing media space to make his case, although focusing more on his general claim that “social and economic rights have been sidelined” in the new South Africa. Offered a further opportunity to substantiate his claim in a radio interview, all Minto could say was: “Numerous studies have shown that the number of people living below $1 per day has gone up.” On the contrary, the World Bank’s World Governance Indicators Report 1996-2006 suggests that, for the past ten years, our country has seen major improvements in governance. In August last year, the IMF also observed: “After sluggish growth in the early years of the political transformation,

South Africa

started to reap the benefit of sustained good macroeconomic management and structural reforms.”

We are pleased to note that in the most recent edition of the World Bank Institutes' Worldwide Governance Indicators, Liberia scored the second largest improvement in the 2006 index of control of corruption. Yet, we do not fool ourselves for we know, despite this improvement, that corruption is alive and well.

Similarly, the Governance Indicators of World Bank does not show any great improvement in the Control of Corruption Indicator of South Korea by scoring 59.2 in 1998 and 64.6 in 2006. It can be compared with a great improvement in the Government Effectiveness Indicator, which improved from 66.8 to 82.9 over the same period. These measures show that more important and urgent issues are the control of corruption and accountability of the government than highlighting government effectiveness.

The importance of the way individuals relate to society and institutions is one of the main findings of a two-year quality-of-life research program carried out under Dr. Luisa Corrado, Marie-Curie fellow at the economics department of Cambridge University in Britain .Commenting to AFP on her research, she also observed: "Many of the happiest and richest countries, the Scandinavian members, Luxembourg and The Netherlands, also come top of the World Bank governance indicators. "Likewise, those EU 15 countries that in our research scored worst in terms of governance (most of the Mediterranean countries) tended to come bottom in the well-being survey as well ... There is a clear geographical divide between northern and southern European countries.

A WORLD Bank Institute (WBI) report revealed recently that

Zimbabwe

was among the few African countries in the throes of a precipitous economic decline due to endemic corruption. This is hardly surprising! The WBI said while the quality of governance in 212 countries measured between 1996 and 2006, had greatly improved, Zimbabwe, together with Cote d'lvore and Venezuela were exceptions. Last year, government announced its intention to conduct a baseline survey to determine the level of corruption in the country. The survey, officials said, was meant to debunk the myth created by international bodies like WBI and TI, which ranked Zimbabwe among the most corrupt countries in the world. The survey was commissioned in February, but has been stalled by the lack of funding.

Most World Bank governance indicators, on issues such as the rule of law and control of corruption, have been flat or negative under Putin. Those on which Russia has shown some improvement in the last decade, especially regulatory quality and government effectiveness, started to increase well before the Putin era began.

"Malawi ’s selection is in recognition of the substantial steps taken by the government of

Malawi

towards addressing corruption and putting in place other sound policies to promote economic development,” Eastham said. Malawi has scored 54 percent in its control of corruption, 80 percent in rule of law, 68 percent for voice and accountability, 59 percent in political rights and 65 percent in civil liberties, according to rates from the Freedom House and World Bank Institute.

Again, "the report, Governance Matters, 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators 1996-2006 being launched today [July 10] by the World Bank Institute and the World Bank Development Economics Vice-presidency, shows that a number of countries—including in Africa—are making progress in improving governance and fighting corruption." The aggregate indicators as well as data from the underlying sources used in the report, which "builds on research on the importance of governance and its impact on development over the past decade," measure the good governance components of voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption" ( World Bank).

Many of these countries in Africa ( Botswana, Kenya, Liberia, and others described in the report) that are making progress in fighting corruption have applied the advances in methods of the World Bank. Taken together, these many proven solutions make it possible, as well, to address corruption effectively in Sierra Leone. Still corruption is a national disaster for Sierra Leone: government is losing billions of

leones

every month to corrupt participants.

Daniel Kaufmann, the director of global governance at the World Bank Institute, argues that surveys reveal the value, in development terms, of good governance - what he calls the ‘development dividend’ of good governance. He has been bold enough to put a figure on it - about 300 percent. In other words, a country that has today $2,000 per capita income per year today can attain $6,000 per capita income per year in the long term if it improves its rule of law, controls corruption and increases government effectiveness.

The Makati standoff led by Sen. Antonio Trillanes confirms once again the fragility of political power in the

Philippines

, now ranked by the World Bank as the one of the most politically unstable among the world's more than 200 countries, and the worst among ASEAN countries. Based on the 2006 World Bank Governance Indicators survey, the Philippines has the poorest percentile ranking among ASEAN countries (11.1) - worse than Indonesia (14.9), Thailand (16.3), or even the much-maligned Myanmar (24). The most stable government in the region is Singapore with a percentile rating of 94.7.

The country has also been given the highest rankings among Middle East and North Africa countries this year on the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index and the Global Information Technology Report’s Networked Readiness Index. Also, the Worldwide Governance Indicators report, released by the World Bank this year, places the UAE at the top of the list of Middle East countries in terms of good governance indicators.

Moreover, it was announced by the Worldwide Governance Indicators Report released by the World Bank 2007 that the UAE tops the Middle East countries in terms of voice and accountability, political stability, absence of violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality and rule of law.

South African top official highlights "steady progress" in service delivery
BBC Monitoring Africa, 19 November 2007

On July 11, the World Bank released its World Governance Indicators - 1996-2006 report. According to the report, the level of political stability in SA has since 1996 risen from 13,5 per cent to 44,2 per cent, representing an improvement of more than 120 per cent. The interpretation of this specific finding should be informed by the knowledge of the political upheavals that took place in the late 1980s and reached a climax in the early 1990s. That our country was able to make such a seismic break with the past and consolidate political stability with such unparalleled rapidity cannot be a political phenomenon to be ignored. Recent experience further suggests that our country is making greater economic progress. It is now known that, over the past three years, our economy has been growing at an annual average of 5 per cent and has been creating half a million jobs a year. However, as Finance Minister Trevor Manuel aptly put it in his medium-term budget policy statement speech, we still cannot say "that we have reached our destination or that victory can be claimed".

On July 11, the World Bank released its World Governance Indicators — 1996-2006 report. According to the report, the level of political stability in SA has since 1996 risen from 13,5% to 44,2%, representing an improvement of more than 120%. The interpretation of this specific finding should be informed by the knowledge of the political upheavals that took place in the late 1980s and reached a climax in the early 1990s. That our country was able to make such a seismic break with the past and consolidate political stability with such unparalleled rapidity cannot be a political phenomenon to be ignored.

President Arroyo, in the very first speech she gave after her installation by the EDSA 2 coup that removed former President Estrada, said eradicating poverty and corruption were among the 10 priority tasks of her presidency. Last year, the World Bank—in the course of rating 209 countries—said that corruption in the Philippines has become worse in the past eight years. Its recent report for 2007 shows the Philippines is worse now than in 2006. Reacting to that WB report, “Governance Matters: Worldwide Governance Indicators,” Secretary Arthur Yap, in 2006 chief of the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) and now head of the Department of Agriculture, said: “President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is aware of the problem and is giving antigraft agencies the needed funding and support to get rid of the corrupt in government.

Another development criteria for which we observe a gap between GCC and other Arab countries is governance. The analysis of public governance sheds light on the quality of government services and political institutions that affect the business community. Ever since 1996, the World Bank has released annual data on several governance indicators for a large number of countries based on six parameters: voice and accountability; political stability; government effectiveness; regulatory quality; rule of law; and costs of corruption.

President Mogae said the safety and security of all residents and their property, along with the securing of borders were central to crime prevention strategies. "Our law enforcement agencies, the Botswana Police, Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), Local Police and others, work collaboratively to combat crime and apprehend criminals. International cooperation is also key," he said. On corruption, the president observed that the country had a good track record as confirmed by the recently released World Bank Institute's Worldwide Governance Indicators 1996-2006 and annual rankings by Transparency International.

Another example is the Governance Indicators by the World Bank Institute which assessed 212 countries over the period of 1996-2006. In 2006, out of the six dimensions of governance, Brunei achieved percentile rankings of 50 and above in five dimensions. The highest was political stability at 92.8, regulatory quality at 80, government effectiveness at 72, control of corruption at 63.4 and rule of law at 59.5, he added.

EFIC chief economist Roger Donnelly says that there are now more than 140 measures of country risk and 'governance’ publicly available that attempt to show how countries measure up against one another in their business and investment climates. One of the best known measures is Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index. The World Bank’s Doing Business is another prominent one. Donnelly also notes a separate, but complementary set of World Bank indicators contained in the World Bank Institute’s Governance Matters report.

The best examples of corrupt states are found in the less developed parts of Europe, Asia and Latin America, exemplified by Albania, a regional center for human trafficking and cigarette and drug smuggling; Burma and Afghanistan, key drug-producing countries; and Paraguay, center of arms smuggling and counterfeit goods, and Colombia, the largest coca producer in the world. And indeed, in both 2005 and 2006 according to two World Bank governance indicators - control of corruption and rule of law - Albania is the most corrupt and lawless European country, exclusive of several former USSR countries, followed by Kosovo, the UN-administered territory that shares many characteristics.

Globally, bribery costs the world some $1 trillion, according to report co-author Daniel Kaufmann, and "the burden of corruption falls disproportionately on the bottom billion people living in extreme poverty." Africa remains generally the worst-governed place on earth, with deterioration in almost all measures of governance in places like Zimbabwe and Cote d'Ivoire.

Efforts to improve governance in the public and private sectors are gaining growing support from both outside and inside Lebanon, a report by The Oxford Business Group said. Earlier this year the World Bank issued Governance Matters 2007, its report on worldwide governance indicators for the previous 10 years. Between 2005 and 2006 Lebanon registered an improvement in terms of regulatory quality but saw its rating dip annually in all other categories.

Natural Resources Extraction
Congressional Testimony by CQ Transcriptions (United States), 25 October 2007

They suffer from exceptionally long dictatorships and include exceptionally few democracies. Once again, the poor quality of governance in the case of oil-exporting countries is especially compelling. Of the 25 countries that control 95 percent of all oil reserves, only 5 (Canada, the U.S., Norway, Australia and the U.K.) rank at the top of World Bank governance indicators, but they only hold 5 percent of all proven reserves. To the contrary, 12 countries (Angola, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya, Nigeria, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Yemen) rank near the bottom of these indicators - and they hold 68 percent of all proven reserves.

With annual growth at over 7 percent, Russia's is one of the fastest rising economies in the world. Russia has been transformed, apparently overnight, from a "transition economy" receiving support and aid from the West to an emerging energy superpower. The country's business reputation, however, does not match its economic success. World Bank governance indicators place Russia near the bottom of the pile compared to countries with similar credit ratings. In a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the main concerns on the part of Western executives were the lack of corporate governance, transparency and business ethics.

Indian Express: Novel measure of state accountability
Indian Express, 21 October 2007

Although there exist more than 100 indices of governance, this index is based on data underlying objective standards, while similar indices such as the Worldwide governance indicators (World Bank) and African Governance Report 2005 (UN Economic Commission for Africa) are based on perceptual data, which makes them less reliable. This new tool will not only serve people looking to hold their governments accountable but also small and medium foreign investors looking for opportunities in a vast, untapped market.

Myanmar and the Philippines both belong to Asean, but they may very well be worlds apart in social activism. In the World Bank's 2007 Worldwide Governance Indicators, the Philippines is in the middle of the "better" to "worse" scale when it comes to the freedom citizens have to voice opinions and select a government. Meanwhile, Myanmar is at the "worse" end of the scale, scoring "0" in the freedom indicator.

A World Bank report in July on worldwide governance indicators had Singapore third in the rule of law after New Zealand and Canada, and ahead of Australia, Britain and Hong Kong. Rule of law measures the extent that people have confidence in and abide by the rules, and includes the quality of the courts and the likelihood of crime. The Swiss-based Institute for Management Development also had Singapore consistently ranked high since 1997 for its legal framework component - which supported the competitiveness of the economy. In the 2006 listing, Singapore was second - one place below Hong Kong, and ahead of Iceland in third. The United States was placed eighth, Australia ninth, Finland 10th, and Britain was 36th.

Indeed, the IMF itself admits that the main risks to its upbeat forecast are on the downside, and that past World Economic Outlook forecasts have "systematically overestimated growth in Africa. For all the Fund’s talk of economic and political reforms in Africa, the hard fact remains that in a whole host of global league tables--the World Bank’s Doing Business Report, Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Report, The World Bank’s Governance Indicators, Indices of Global Political and Economic Freedom and the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index--African countries, with a handful of exceptions, cluster at or near the bottom.

Singapore's judicial system has performed well in studies conducted by several reputable international organisations. Among the surveys is one by the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC). Singapore was also ranked tops in another report – the World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators. This report covers six dimensions, including the rule of law.

Is corruption really getting worse?
Straits Times (Indonesia), 12 October 2007

Late last month, when Transparency International's latest corruption index showed that Indonesia had slipped in the global corruption rankings despite President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's 2004 pledge to eradicate the scourge, the local press lost no time in trumpeting the results. But corruption indices do not always agree. The annual corruption index published by the Hong Kong-based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) in March this year, for example, suggested that the situation in Indonesia had actually improved slightly. The World Bank's governance indicators also suggest Indonesia has been getting greater control over graft in the past five years. What everyone agrees on is that - much like bureaucratic inefficiency, red tape and mixed signals from central and local governments - corruption in Indonesia is a deeply entrenched institutional problem that will take a long time to overcome.

Seeds of Change
Time International Atlantic Edition (United States), 8 October 2007

Rwanda also scores well on some perennial African problems. It is one of the safest countries on the continent. It boasts the highest percentage of women in parliament anywhere in the world--49%. Its rate of hiv infection is at 3%--tiny compared to the figure in other small sub-Saharan African development stars, such as Botswana and Namibia--and all its 35,000 aids sufferers are on antiretroviral drugs. It is investing heavily in education. The government is also tackling overpopulation, which--in that it describes a situation of too many people on not enough land--was an underlying cause of the genocide. In Mayange, outside Nyamata, Ruxin has virtually eliminated hunger and malaria in 15 months, and the government is now scaling up his success nationwide. Most significant, foreign donors report no corruption, and in its World Governance Indicators released in July, the World Bank found Rwanda's government ranked among Africa's best, such as South Africa and Mauritius, scoring particularly well on control of graft. Repeat: World Finds Little Corruption in Small African Country.

At the country level, the thorny issue is how to deal with countries which have no interest in improving governance. The plan commits the Bank to "remaining engaged", encouraging it to seek "creative ways of providing support" such as involving communities in delivery, or carrying out analytical activities which "raise the awareness" of the importance of anti-corruption efforts. Look for more judicial reform and media capacity building in country assistance strategies. Helping to 'raise the awareness' was the latest round of Bank governance indicators, Governance matters 2007, authored by Kaufmann, Kraay and Mastruzzi. The indicators, drawn from data from over 30 different organisations, measure voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption.

Unrest is a permanent condition in Burma, trumped only by fear. The situation has been threatening to boil over since 12th January 2007 when China and Russia used their vetoes in the UNSC to prevent UN intervention on behalf of the enslaved people of Burma. The uprising was triggered by massive increases in fuel prices, making food impossibly expensive for people who are, in the vast majority, living close to or below the absolute poverty level ($2/day). It is widely believed in Burma that this crisis was caused by IMF advice to the Junta on "economic reform". The Burmese government is ranked the worst in the world on objective indicators: http://www.burmanet.org/news/2007/09/14/irrawaddy-burma-ranks-zero-in-worldwide-governance-indicators-violet-cho/

The World Bank, well known for the stringent requirements that its clients must fulfil, also emphasised the importance of the CPI. Daniel Kaufmann, director of Global Programmes and Government at the World Bank Institute says: "I look up to it with enormous respect. Let's keep in mind that perceptions matter. What entrepreneurs or the citizens of a country say affects how they vote, how they invest. And secondly, nowadays the questions have become much more rigorous and scientific, even asking about the quantity of bribes. So that's much more rigorous than the typical opinion poll question in the past that asked 'in your view is there high or low corruption in your country?' That's not very useful, and that's a totally subjective perception." According to Mr Kaufmann, Transparency International's index and the World Bank's own investigations produce similar results in about 90 percent of the cases, certainly in European countries.

A report, Governance Matters 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators, 1996-2006, authored by the World Bank Institute (WBI), indicates that the quality of governance in Zimbabwe has sharply deteriorated in the last 10 years and that corruption had become more prevalent, compromising economic growth prospects and worsening poverty. Governance in Zimbabwe and Cote D'Ivoire has deteriorated sharply on every dimension. On average the quality of governance around the world has not improved much over the past decade, despite individual country improvements. For the countries that have done well, there have been a similar number that have experienced deteriorations in a number of governance dimensions, including Zimbabwe, Cote D’Ivoire, Belarus and Venezuela. And in many other countries no significant change in either direction is yet apparent, read part of the report.

The biggest agenda on the desk of the AGF is the war on corruption. At least, that is how the Gani's of the Bench and a large section of the Nigerian society see it. That is how I see it. The reason is simple. Corruption is the biggest factor in our retarded development. Nigerian leaders are said to have stolen over U.S. $380 billion (or as some sources put it, about 220 billion Pounds Sterling) over the past 40 years. Certainly, former World Bank President, Paul Wolfowitz, indicated US $300 billion.
This nation still ranks among the most corrupt in the world, though Obasanjo's albeit suspect war on corruption mainly through Malam Nuhu Ribadu's EFCC, got this nation some measure of hopeful commendations. For instance, when the head of the World Bank Institute (WBI), Daniel Kaufmann, visited Nigeria in October 2005, he said: "Nigeria is changing for the better. In fact, if the current momentum is maintained and deepened, the progress made in the fight against corruption could become irreversible".

The WBI also warned that countries such as Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea with voice and accountability challenges tended to have much more corruption. While Zimbabwe and Cote D'Ivoire ranked dismally in good governance indicators, it was a different story for other African countries such as Angola and Kenya, which made significant strides on the path to good governance. Zimbabwe, which last received financial aid from major multilateral financial institutions in 1999 has ranked poorly on most global economic competitiveness rankings such as the World Economic Forum (WEF)'s Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) and the WEF's Global Information Technology Report (GITR).

ZIMBABWE has once again fared badly in six key dimensions of governance with the World Bank Institute (WBI) ranking the troubled country alongside Cote D'Ivoire, Belarus and Venezuela. While Zimbabwe and Cote D'Ivoire ranked dismally in good governance indicators, it was a different story for other African countries such as Angola and Kenya, which made significant strides on the path to good governance.

"The hopeful news is that a considerable number of countries, including in Africa, are showing that it is possible to make significant governance progress in a relatively short period of time. Such improvements in governance are critical for aid effectiveness and for sustained long-run growth," said Daniel Kaufmann, co author of the report and director of Global Programs at the World Bank Institute.

According to the Worldwide Governance Indicators report, which ranks countries by the amount of freedom citizens have to voice opinions and select a government, the U.S. tops out at 35th place--a drop from its rank of 22nd in 2005 because of a decreased trust in public officials and restrictions on the freedom of the press. "The U.S. is not a model," says Daniel Kaufmann, a lead author of the report, but it is far from the doghouse. View ranking on a map (1630 kb pdf)

This optimism in a growing stability is supported by new research that shows that Africa is indeed a continent on the move. The World Bank‘s Governance Matters 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators 1996 – 2006 report, released in July, reveals a number of countries in Africa are striding forward in improving governance and fighting corruption. The study covers 212 countries and territories, and says that over the period from 1998 to 2006, Kenya, Niger, and Sierra Leone have shown marked recent improvements in the measure of voice and accountability, while Algeria and Liberia have strengthened their rule of law. Countries like Algeria, Angola, Libya, Rwanda and Sierra Leone have made improvements in political stability and Tanzania has recorded gains in controlling corruption.
The report does indicate that other African countries still face enormous governance and development challenges, but adds that the positive African examples show that it is possible to make significant progress in a relatively short period of time. Annan added that this growth in stability had gone hand in hand with development – peace, he said, would only endure when it was accompanied by economic and social development.

According to a World Bank report issued in July, Italy's corruption-fighting record is one of the worst in the European Union. The bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators' report ranked Italy behind all other countries in the 27-member EU except Greece for its ability to control corruption and ensure rule of the law. The report, which analysed government effectiveness in 212 countries, noted that emerging economies such as Chile and Costa Rica were close to beating Italy in the anti-corruption stakes. Italy ranked 45th on the 2006 list by global watchdog Transparency International that gauges perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts.

The Worldwide Governance Indicators have provoked debate and discussions about their strengths as well as limitations for monitoring country governance, and for informing specific country reform strategies. The authors emphasize that the aggregate WGI data are just the starting point for identifying the country’s governance strengths, vulnerabilities and broad trends, and for thinking about governance in specific country contexts. An important next step, they say, is to review the many individual data sources and variables on which the WGI are built, so to obtain a more disaggregated picture, as well as relying on complementary in-country measurement and assessment tools, such as the Governance and Anti-Corruption (GAC) country diagnostics, which have already been carried out in well over 20 countries together with domestic stakeholders and institutions.

The Failed States Index and its accompanying color-coded map are misleading-at least in the case of Botswana. The illustration tars Botswana with the same broad yellow brush as its neighbors, indicating its "borderline" status. The World Bank Institute's latest Worldwide Governance Indicators, released in July, places Botswana 16th out of 212 countries and territories in terms of political stability and the absence of violence. Dozens of independent sources, including the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, rank Botswana's stability as the highest in Africa, leading Moody's and Standard & Poor's to give it the highest credit rating in Africa.....

Then we have this whole wonderful piece of work on governance that Daniel Kaufmann and Aart Kraay and others at the World Bank have been working on for the last several years. They've come up with these five or six broad indicators of governance measuring different aspects of institutional quality. The problem with the governance indices is that they're all very highly correlated with each other. If you have good rule of law, you tend to have good voice [freedom of expression] and accountability [the extent to which citizens of a country are able to participate in the selection of governments]. To do our analysis, we had to choose one. The logical strongest contributor to intangible capital-rule of law-fit into the story that we're telling.

Among the 16 selection criteria are trade-friendly policies. One trade indicator, developed by the Heritage Foundation, measures a country's openness to international trade based on average tariff rates and non-tariff barriers to trade. Other indicators, such as the International Finance Corporation's "days and cost to start a business" and the World Bank Institute's "regulatory quality", also give countries an incentive to improve weak investment climates to the benefit of domestic and foreign investors.

The Honduran government of Manuel Zelaya has not been able to overcome the country’s reputation for corruption, to the extent that it is on the point of losing millions of dollars in aid from the Millennium Challenge Account, a fund set up by the United States to help extremely poor countries. It is not that this country of seven million people does not need international aid. According to the Honduran government’s Second Country Report, 2007, on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), 62 percent of Honduran households are poor, and 42 percent are extremely poor. The problem appears to be something different. The World Bank report on Worldwide Governance Indicators 1996-2006 includes a ranking for control of corruption in 212 countries and territories, and Honduras has slipped down several places because of its lack of transparency. The partial release of the report drew fire in Honduras, with Yani Rosenthal, minister of the Presidency, saying the report "gives a false perception with intent to harm us for unfathomable reasons." Rosenthal attributed this "false perception" to the fact that the period under evaluation spans more time under previous governments than the present one. The data include only Zelaya’s first year in office, and he has now been president for 19 months.

Once marred by some of the worst judiciaries and law enforcement agencies of the former Soviet nations, today Georgia is the best performer in fighting corruption and the second-best in terms of a functioning rule of law in that region, according to the World Bank's latest governance report. If Georgia can accomplish all this in so short a time, why can't countries in Latin America? For more than two decades, international agencies, many based in Washington, have poured millions of dollars into strengthening Latin America's judiciary. Yet the same World Bank indicators reveal levels of corruption unchanged and show the rule of law continuing a steady decline.

Contrary to Bowring's assertion, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has been persistently rated as one of the most effective anti-corruption agencies in the world. This has been affirmed by local and international surveys. Just last month, the World Bank released the Worldwide Governance Indicators 2006, which ranked Hong Kong 16th in terms of its effectiveness in controlling corruption among 212 countries and places polled. The ICAC is entrusted to tackle corruption both in the public and the private sectors. Guaranteed by the Basic Law for its continuous independent operation, the ICAC has made a name for itself for fighting corruption without fear or favour.

The former United Nations Secretary General, Busumuru Kofi Annan has observed that confidence among Ghanaians is essential for development process. He mentioned that the recent World Bank governance indicators prove Ghana's progress in every ranked category, be it on voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, or control of corruption. "These are good foundations we must build on. No country could aspire to new heights if its institutions are not stable and its society not capable of using and retaining skills, developing new talent and creating opportunities for all, including the new generation. This is particularly valid when we have such a young population," he explained.

Once marred by some of the worst judiciaries and law enforcement agencies of the former Soviet nations, today Georgia is the best performer in fighting corruption and the second best in terms of a functioning rule of law in that region, according to the World Bank's latest governance report. What's more, Saakashvili's radical reforms demonstrate that improvements don't need generations to take place. Georgia has seen its ranking jump up more than 20 percentile points in three years. If Georgia can accomplish all this in so short a time, why can't countries in Latin America? For more than two decades, international agencies, many based in Washington, have poured millions of dollars into strengthening Latin America's judiciary. Yet, the same World Bank indicators reveal levels of corruption unchanged and show the rule of law continuing a steady decline.

The World Bank ranks the most corrupt countries in the Western Hemisphere: Haiti, Venezuela and Paraguay. The ranking recently released by World Bank study, "Governance Matters 2007: World Wide Governance Indicators 1996-2006," contains a statistical measure of 212 countries' effectiveness in controlling corruption. Haiti is one of the world's most corrupt countries, whose 2.4 percentile rating means that 97.6 percent of countries around the world are less corrupt. Venezuela is second in the region at 12.6 and Paraguay is third (13.6).

Mr Annan said Ghana's leadership role within the African Union has given her an important role to play and given "an impetus to the peace process that requires care and utmost commitment." He stated further, "The role we play as Ghana and Ghanaians is respected because of what we ourselves have achieved. We are a country at peace, and our collective human security has progressed steadily. The recent World Bank governance indicators demonstrate Ghana's progress in every ranked category."

Busummuru Annan said the recent World Bank governance indicators demonstrated Ghana's progress in accountability; political stability; government effectiveness; rule of law and control of corruption. He said that Ghana had lived through many ups and downs since it attained independence in 1957, with economic shocks and near collapse in the early 1980s, but the fortunes seemed to be moving in the right direction.

Africa: on the move on corruption
Africa Today (United Kingdom), 31 July 2007

African nations have shown the greatest improvement and taken the biggest steps in reducing corruption over the past 10 years, the World Bank has said. Its latest report, The bank's Governance Matters, 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators 1996-2006, measuring the quality of government, free media, political stability, the rule of law and control of corruption in 212 countries, confirms that corruption is "on the wane" in Africa, and this, according to the World Bank, is crucial to eliminating poverty and lifting the standards of living of the citizens of the continent.

World Bank Study links Governance to Development
Business Day (Nigeria), 31 July 2007

Africa, often stereotyped as a place of epic corruption and misrule, emerges in the World Bank report as a continent of great variety, with some countries — Tanzania, Liberia, Rwanda, Ghana and Niger — making notable progress over the past decade, and others — Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast and Eritrea — moving backward, according to a World Bank report based on the "most comprehensive data on governance in more than 200 countries." The report also challenged the assumptions that "the rich world had reached nirvana in governance." It found that "not just poor countries struggled with corruption and flawed government…the rating of corruption in the United States, for example, has significantly worsened in the last decade, and last year Chile, a developing country, performed as well on this measure as the United States.

Kenya is among African countries that have made significant progress in governance in recent years, says a new World Bank report. The index by which the countries were judged include corruption, democratic participation by citizens, rule of law, quality of state regulation, political stability and absence of violence. According to the report, other African countries that have made improvements include Niger and Sierra Leone while Algeria and Liberia have strengthened their rule of law. Countries like Algeria, Angola Libya, Rwanda and Sierra Leone have made improvements in political stability and Tanzania has recorded gains on control of corruption. But the report also shows that other African countries still face enormous governance and development challenges.

In honor of Liberia’s 160th anniversary of independence, the International Contact Group on Liberia (ICGL) has issued a statement congratulating the country on its success in rebuilding itself and strengthening its economic development. The ICGL noted Liberia’s strong economic growth over the past year as well as the encouraging increase of international investment. The statement also acknowledged the significant improvements the country keeps making in advancing its civic and economic society, as reflected in the World Bank Institute’s latest Worldwide Governance Indicators study.

The UAE has scored 83.5 per cent - the highest amongst the Middle East and North African (Mena) countries in controlling corruption, the World Bank said in its latest report. The UAE's score was much higher than Israel's 79.6 per cent, Qatar's 78.6 and Oman's 74.8 per cent, while Iraq with 3.4 per cent, ranked lowest in the table. Bribery costs the world about $1 trillion (Dh3.67 trillion), reducing the pace of growth and development in the developing world. The high score shows that the UAE's development activities suffer the least from corruption.

Zimbabwe is among the few African countries facing decline due to corruption and poor governance, although many African nations have taken steps to reduce the vice over the past 10 years, a recent World Bank Institute (WBI) report says......

The Bank's Governance Matters, 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators 1996-2006 study highlighted the number of African countries that had made great strides in improving various aspects of government as Kenya, Niger, Sierra Leone, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Tanzania and Rwanda.

For policy debates to be meaningful, both sides have to learn to trust each other
South China Morning Post, 19 July 2007

The World Bank's governance indicators over the past decade have consistently rated Hong Kong higher than the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's average in political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption.
However, the city did poorly in "voice and accountability", though its score jumped significantly from 52.2 (out of 100), in 2005, to 64.9 last year.
This shortfall is probably due to the slow progress in democratisation and the perceived gap between the government and the people, as old-style consultative politics outlives its usefulness.

Measuring countries' governance performance, and their improvements over time, is thus a key item on the governance agenda. But it is also a complex challenge, as governance has many dimensions, each with inherent measurement challenges. The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) project shows how this challenge can be met. ‘The Governance Indicators put to rest the tired assertion that these issues cannot be robustly measured and the lessons drawn cannot be put to subsequent positive use by governments, the development community, civil society and the media,’ says John Githongo, former Permanent Secretary for Governance & Ethics in Kenya's Office of the President.”

Botswana was been singled out for special praise by World Bank researchers for good governance. The applause coincided with the launch of the 2007 World Governance Indicators (WGI) Report. The full-title of the report is: "Governance Matters, 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators 1996-2006". The launch was held at the World Bank Institute in Washington DC. In a statement released by the World Bank to coincide with the launch, Botswana has been singled out by researchers as being among a select group of developing countries that score higher on key dimensions of governance than a number of leading industrialised countries. Botswana is the only African country to be so singled out in the statement. ”

Botswana has topped Africa with a score of 92.8 per cent in political stability and absence of violence. This years World Bank Institute report on Governance Matters has placed Botswana number 16 out of 212 countries covered by the study. The score has placed Botswana above all of the G8 nations such as Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom and USA. Botswana scored exceptionally well for all six areas identified by the report as being the key components of good governance.”

There is considerable interest in India on the subject of how to increase government effectiveness, and how to improve governance. The World Bank has released an update on its cross-country governance measurement effort led by Kaufmann, Kraay and Mastruzzi. To a significant extent, these numbers are drawn from surveys. They reflect some mixture of both perception and reality. A comparison of India and China in this data is revealing.
Even if the World Bank's measurement of governance indicators purely reflects perceptions and not reality, such measurement is important, for India's ability to participate in globalisation is critically linked to perceptions of the country in the eyes of global firms and governments. As an example, these shifting perceptions of India versus China may have something to do with the narrowing of the gap between the two countries in receiving FDI in recent years.”

The Worldwide Governance Indicators Project ranks the members of the Southern African Legal Information Institute in the following order for respect for the rule of law.
1. Mauritius; 2. Botswana; 3. South Africa; 4. Namibia; 5. Seychelles; 6. Lesotho; 7. Madagascar; 8. Tanzania; 9. Malawi; 10. Uganda; 11. Mozambique; 12. Zambia; 13. Swaziland; 14. Kenya; 15. Angola.”

West Africa: New Evidence Democracy Reduces Corruption
All Africa (Senegal), 17 July 2007

West African countries which have made gains in democracy, such as Ghana, Liberia and Niger, also appear to have reined in corruption, according to a 10 July 2007 World Bank report. ‘Countries that have undergone a democratic transition have much lower cases of corruption than other countries,’ Edouard Al-Dahdah, operations officer at the World Bank Institute, which produced the report, told IRIN. “

The World Bank has marked Sierra Leone as one of the few African countries that are making significant strides on the path of governance. This disclosure was made in a World Bank report ‘Governance Matters 2007, World Wide Indicators 1996-2006’ and was launched on July 10 by the World Bank Institute and the World Bank Development Economics Vice–President in Washington. According to the report, Sierra Leone has made an impressive performance indicating that good governance and corruption control are fundamental for long –term growth and reducing poverty.
Daniel Kaufmann maintained that such improvements in governance made by Sierra Leone are critical for aid effectiveness and for sustained long-term growth. Good governance has also been found to significantly enhance the effectiveness of development assistance in general, and of World Bank funded projects in particular.”

A latest report released by the World Bank Institute (WBI) has rated Liberian among the countries that have made significant improvement as far as governance indicators available today shows. In the report, which was released July 10th, this year covering 2006, the WBI said its 276 variables from 31 countries sources and 25 individuals, shows that Liberia's scores significantly over the past year in several categories continuing on a trend since the low point of the scores in 2003. According to the report carried in the New York Times on the just released WBI report, it said Liberia was listed as a country that has made ‘notable progress’ over the last decade. “

World Bank knocks Nigeria on good governance
Business Day (Nigeria), 16 July 2007

Nigeria is conspicuously missing on the list of African countries adjudged by World Bank as making notable progress in improving governance and fighting corruption. A World Bank report: ‘Governance Matters, 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) 1996-2006’ says some African countries are making significant strides on the path to good governance and corruption control, a development that is encouraging, given their place in long-term growth and poverty reduction.”

After deteriorating between 1998 and 2005, governance in Africa appears to have improved somewhat in the last year. However, governance standards for the continent are far from ideal. After a serious deterioration between 1996 and 2005 governance in Africa has improved over the past 12 months, according to the World Bank’s latest Governance Matters survey, released in July. Even so, the aggregate index for 48 African countries is no better than in 2003 and is still some 4.5% worse than a decade ago.”

"Consider how our government has ignored public opinion in the matters of political killings and corruption, negating the value of a free press, a revered democratic institution. Doing so breeds the perception of increased instability, a factor political risk analysts take into account in grading our investment worthiness. So, now we know why we are what we are. It is no surprise the WB study noted that perceptions of the country’s political stability have deteriorated over the last 10 years. Political stability is measured by the likelihood of violent threats to, or changes, in government, including terrorism. In two other indicators—voice and accountability and fighting corruption—the study noted the perception that Philippine performance lagged behind that of most of the countries surveyed.”

Some government critics have questioned whether the firings and shaming of public officials will make a lasting difference or simply allow different people to practice the same corruption. It's practically impossible to measure whether the increasing number of investigations is reducing the amount of corruption, but World Bank surveys show Brazilians don't think so: Most people perceive that there is more corruption in government now than there was 10 years ago, according to the bank's Governance 2007 report.”

"Until the mid-nineties, I did not think that governance could be measured. The Worldwide Governance Indicators have shown me otherwise’ says Shlomo Yitzhaki, Director of Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics and Professor of Economics at the Hebrew University. ‘It constitutes the state of the art on how to build periodic governance indicators which can be a crucial tool for policy analysts and decision-makers benchmarking their countries. Uniquely, it publicly discloses the aggregated and disaggregated data, as well as the estimated margins of error for each country. It definitely sets a standard for transparency in data.‘ ”

Brunei continues to fare well in the latest World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) report covering 212 countries from 1996 to 2006, which was released on Tuesday, July 10. The latest ten-year report indicated that Brunei continues to be in third place in Mean behind Singapore and Malaysia in two areas of governance, namely Law Enforcement (Rule of Law) and Control of Corruption.”

Zimbabwe’s rule of law record is worse than that of war-ravaged Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Sudan, according to a new World Bank report on governance released this week. The report titled, Governance Matters 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators 1996-2006, also showed that Zimbabwe - currently still to come to terms with the effects of a government swoop on prices - fares badly in terms of the regulatory environment where it is again ranked lower than DRC, Sudan as well as even Iraq.”

But no matter how you slice and dice the data, Russia almost invariably appears far below the advanced countries and falls in the ranks of the lower percentiles, which indicate the percentage of countries worldwide that rate below the selected country. Even more worrying to Moscow ought to be Russia's poor performance in the much-vaunted BRIC group, with Russia often far behind Brazil and India, although China more often brings up the rear with a big lag. Indeed, Russia doesn't even perform particularly well among the group of countries from the former Soviet Union.
Moreover, the World Bank study shows that Russia's relative performance vis-à-vis other countries had improved from about 2000-2001, with the percentiles of its Governance Indicators on the whole increasing. But since about 2002-2004, Russia's Governance Indicators have generally been flat or declining - the notable exception is Political Stability. The World Bank is keen to point out that these Governance Indicators are subjective, rightly arguing that the areas it examines cannot be measured by objective scientific methods. ”

Russia sceptical about World Bank report on governance efficiency
BBC (United Kingdom), 13 July 2007

The Russian Foreign Ministry is skeptical about the report by World Bank experts on the efficiency of governance, the ministry said today, commenting on the July report by World Bank experts, which assesses governance efficiency in over 200 countries of the world [Governance Matters VI: Aggregate and Individual Governance Indicators, 1996-2006].
Despite the comprehensive nature of this research, the objectivity and political impartiality of its authors raises doubts. In particular, we would like to express our perplexity with a number of assessments of the state of affairs in Russia appearing in the report,’ the Foreign Ministry said. For example, ‘in terms of responsiveness to public opinion and accountability of state authorities Russia is rated lower than some absolute monarchies’, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The political stability indicator in Russia in 2004-2006 ‘turned out to be considerably lower than in countries that experienced an acute political crisis in those years’, the Foreign Ministry added. Data on some other countries also appear doubtful, the Foreign Ministry said. ‘Such 'oddities' entitle us to be sceptical about the results of the work of the World Bank experts and to treat the data that appear in the report with caution,’ the Foreign Ministry said. “

Costa Rica shows high governance level in World Bank study
La Nación (Costa Rica), 13 July 2007

Costa Rica surpassed or was even with some world powers in a World Bank study of governance indicators between 1996 and 2006. Chile, Uruguay, and Costa Rica are the best performers among the Latin American nations; furthermore, they rank better than industrialized nations such as Greece and Italy. The survey was done in 212 countries and is based on data from 33 different organizations, thus becoming an ‘index of indexes’, according to analysts."

Thailand: Thailand's governance rankings fall slightly in 2006
Thai News Service, 13 July 2007

Thailand's governance rankings fell slightly in 2006 from the previous year, according to a new study by the World Bank Institute, the Bangkok Post reports. Rankings for ‘voice and accountability’ - measuring freedom of expression, freedom of association and media freedom - declined sharply to a percentile ranking of around 30% in 2006 from 50% the previous year. Rankings for political stability also declined, with both reflecting perceptions of decreased freedom and stability following the Sept 19, 2006 coup.”

According to the report, in the last four-five years Kazakhstan has been making some strides on the path to better governance but there is still a lot of room for further improvements. Thus, on the indicator ‘government effectiveness,’ Kazakhstan moved from below 20th percentile in 2002 to above 30th percentile in 2005-2006. On ‘regulatory quality’, it moved from 20th percentile in 2002 to almost 40th percentile in 2005-2006. On ‘control of corruption,’ it moved from 10th percentile to 20th. For ‘rule of law,’ progress is more moderate, but still positive.”

South Africa's performance on the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators report remained steady in 2006, showing that the country has made positive improvements over the past year in all but one of the categories. “

Governance has improved in Africa — World Bank
Vanguard (Nigeria), 13 July 2007

The World Bank says governance has significantly improved in a number of African countries. In its latest report entitled: ‘Governance Matters, 2007: Worldwide Governance and Indicators, 1996-2006’, the Bank stated that some African countries had taken bold steps to cut corruption and improve governance. The report, which was released in Washington on Wednesday in New York, however, stated that ‘many countries still faced tremendous challenges’.”

Countries that don't come off well in the report have complained about it. Yesterday World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick got a letter signed by executive directors from China, Russia and Argentina, among others, questioning whether the bank ought to be involved in such an exercise, even if it does not directly affect the flow of dollars. The report is basically a survey of surveys -- its authors summed up public opinion polls and expert reports on various countries, covering everything from the costs of regulation to the frequency of terrorist attacks. As the authors candidly concede, this introduces an element of subjectivity. But, in the broadest sense, the report plainly measures something real. It seems right to us that China should rank near the bottom for ‘voice and accountability.’ Can anyone dispute that 99 percent of the world's countries are better on ‘the rule of law’ than Zimbabwe, and that Robert Mugabe's realm has regressed substantially in this respect since 1998? Venezuela under Hugo Chávez has plunged on most indicators. At the other end of the spectrum, the study is surely correct to say that no country is tougher on corruption than Finland.”

Perhaps one should not expect too much of so complex a statistical effort, but the findings for SA are only moderately encouraging. Given that we have been through a period of intense and sometimes destructive political tension within the ruling alliance over the past year or two, it's good to know that we are still doing fine when it comes to the quality of our democracy, and even improving in some areas of governance. But given that SA has been going through so rapid a transition over the past decade, it's disappointing to find we don't score much better on most indicators than we did in 1996. There's been a big improvement in SA's political stability and the absence of violence, but we still rank low by world standards. Control of corruption is better too. But on voice and accountability, and on rule of law, we're merely stable. Our government, according to the index, is no more effective than it was in 1996 -- though we do score quite well by international standards. So it's a mixed picture. All it says, perhaps, is that there's plenty of room for improvement.”

Zoellick has been criticized by developing countries over the publication of the Worldwide Governance Indicators, which was first reported by the Financial Times. In an e-mail to Zoellick this week, nine bank directors, including representatives from China and Argentina, complained that the publication is too harsh. It gave the countries low scores for lack of accountability and governance quality. The report was prepared before Zoellick took office.”

The report, titled ‘Governance Matters VI: Aggregate and Individual Governance Indicators' for the period 1996-2006, concludes that Turkey lost considerable ground in the categories of ‘Freedom of Speech and Accountability,’ ‘Quality of Law and Legislation’ and ‘Political Stability,’ when compared to 2005. On the other hand, Turkey scored an upturn in ‘Government Efficiency,’ ‘Rule of Law’ and ‘The Fight against Corruption.’ In terms of average governance points, Turkey was awarded 51.25 for 2005 and 50.8 for 2006.”

A report released yesterday by the World Bank has shown that industrialised, wealthy nations struggle with bad governance and corruption, with the rating of the US and Italy on corruption having significantly increased since 1998. A number of emerging economies, including Chile, Botswana, Costa Rica, Latvia and Uruguay, scored higher on the rule of law than industrialised countries including Greece and Italy. The report showed extraordinary progress in African countries including Tanzania, Liberia, Ghana and Ivory Coast. One of the report's authors, Daniel Kaufmann, said 'it begins to challenge these long-held popular notions that the rich world has reached nirvana in governance'. Mr Kaufmann said the scandal involving the World Bank earlier this year had led to questions about its own credibility. He said countries were now rightly asking 'what right do you have of rating the world when you first have to rate your selves? It has to start at home'. “

When the world's poor nations ask for more foreign aid for development, the rich ones often tell them to ensure good governance first. But the findings of a new study by the World Bank Institute indicate that denying the development needs of poor countries on the grounds of ‘bad governance’ may no longer be valid in many cases. The study, which was released this week, points out that many countries around the world, including some of the poorest in Africa, have made ‘significant progress’ in fighting corruption over the past decade.”

The World Bank has reported that South Africa’s control of corruption has improved by 3%, increasing from 68% to 71%. This is according to a report, Governance Matters 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators 1996-2006, which was published on Tuesday by the World Bank Institute and the World Bank Development Economics Vice-Presidency. The report shows that a number of African countries, including South Africa, are making progress in improving governance and fighting corruption. This is encouraging given that good governance and corruption control are fundamental for long-term growth and reducing poverty.”

Governance has improved in Ethiopia as in a number of African countries, according to a report released by the World Bank, Tuesday. The report, ‘Governance Matters, 2007: Worldwide Governance and Indicators, 1996-2006’, found that Ethiopia had made strides toward cutting corruption and improving governance, but political stability and voice and accountability remain to be tremendous challenges.”

The World Bank has published a summary of six aggregate and individual governance indicators for 212 countries and territories over the period 1996-2006, in which it pointed out that political stability has deteriorated considerably in these ten years, which means that the likelihood that the government will be destabilized or overthrown by unconstitutional violent means, including terrorism, has increased.”

Nine of the World Bank’s 24 executive directors have written to its new president Robert Zoellick challenging its role in publishing controversial indicators that attempt to measure the quality of governance in its member countries. The letter, signed by directors representing China, Russia, Mexico, Argentina and other predominantly developing countries, presents Mr Zoellick with the first serious test of his World Bank presidency less than two weeks after he succeeded Paul Wolfowitz. It follows the publication earlier this week of the annual Worldwide Governance Indicators report, which infuriated a number of governments. The report is not an official bank document, but is produced by bank researchers and is highly influential in development circles.”

In Hungary, the sharpest decline was recorded in the political stability indicator, measuring perceptions of the likelihood that the government will be destabilised or overthrown by unconstitutional or violent means. While in 2003 the country got over 80 points on a scale ranging from 1 to 100, last year its score dipped below 70.”

For its part, the just published report ‘Indicators of the Governance in the World Scope 1996 -2006,’ documents a reduction in the regulatory indicators, state of law and control of corruption in the Dominican Republic during this period.”

The report has measured governance by a complex set of interdependent criteria and six separate categories. World Bank experts point to corruption as a principal impediment to economic progress. Serbia scored 46 out of 100 points for efficiency in controlling corruption. As for other five categories, it has 51.4 points for civic liberties and accountability, 44.5 for civil service effectiveness, 40.5 for legislation quality and 35.2 for the rule of law. The political stability in Serbia in 2006 received 24.5 points, 2.9 more than its 2005 score.”

World Bank Praised Indonesia's Governance
Rakyat Merdeka (Indonesia), 12 July 2007

World Bank praised Indonesia's improvements on governance, although its results are not too significant. ‘This is the most comprehensive set of governance data for Indonesia currently available, and its’ findings are very encouraging,’ says World Bank Indonesia Country Director, Joachim von Amsberg, on World Bank report, ‘Governance Matters, 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators 1996-2006’ at their official website. He said that positive medium-term trends show that Indonesia’s commitment to improving governance and fighting corruption is yielding results. However, significant difference is impossible in short-term, particularly related to long-term effort to fight against corruption.”

Indonesian Government's Performance Getting Better
Harian Seputar Indonesia, 12 July 2007

Governance of Indonesian government is considered by the World Bank to have improved compared to 10 years ago. One of six assessment criteria showed that Indonesia is excelled compared to average East Asian countries. Result of the assessment was reported in the form of World Bank report, namely Governance Matters, 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) 1996-2006, received by SINDO in Jakarta yesterday.”

Eyes of world on this hotbed of mobsterism
The Age (Australia), 12 July 2007

This week the World Bank's eagerly awaited Worldwide Governance Indicators survey was released. It ranked nations on six key criteria, and Australia scored highly — in the mid 90s — in such categories as government effectiveness, regulatory quality and control of corruption. But in the category political stability and absence of violence, Australia slumped to 75, just scraping into the top percentile.”

Israel and the United Arab Emirates lead Middle Eastern countries in the fight against corruption and enacting laws that benefit business, according to a World Bank report....

Until the mid-nineties, I did not think that governance could be measured. The Worldwide Governance Indicators have shown me otherwise,’ says Shlomo Yitzhaki, director of the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) and an economics professor at Hebrew University. ‘Uniquely, it publicly discloses the aggregated and disaggregated data, as well as the estimated margins of error for each country. It definitely sets a standard for transparency in data.’ ”

Ghana has scored the highest marks in key governance measures in sub-Saharan Africa, according to this year's ‘Governance Matters’ report of the World Bank. Though the report released Tuesday shows mixed performance by this country in the six governance areas between 1996-2006, overall, Ghana has made tremendous progress, adding more and more credence to the growing belief that liberal multiparty democracy is here to stay, and that quality of governance can only go one way - up.“

Ghana and South Africa received the highest marks of any African nations from the World Bank in its annual report on governance, entitled ‘Good Governance 2007’. The aid agency's global report for 2006, released Tuesday, shows mixed progress dating back to 1996 of Ghana's performance in the six governance dimensions. However, overall governance has improved and Ghana is proving superior to her peers in the rankings.“

Eyes of world on this hotbed of mobsterism
The Age (Australia), 12 July 2007

Africa, often stereotyped as a place of epic corruption and misrule, emerges in a World Bank report as a continent of great variety, with some countries — Tanzania, Liberia, Rwanda, Ghana and Niger — making notable progress over the past decade, and others — Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast and Eritrea — moving backward. The report, released yesterday and based on the most comprehensive data on governance in more than 200 countries, found that not just poor countries struggled with corruption and flawed government.

The report, ‘Governance Matters, 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators 1996-2006,’ was written by Mr. Kaufmann and the World Bank researchers Aart Kraay and Massimo Mastruzzi. It was posted on the Internet at www.govindicators.org. Data came from an ideologically diverse array of groups that included Freedom House, Transparency International, the Heritage Foundation, Reporters Without Borders and the State Department. ‘This is the best data source on governance now,’ said Steven Radelet, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, a Washington research group. ‘It is of huge importance in development. Ten years ago, there was no data. Fifteen years ago, we didn’t talk about this stuff.’“

South Africa’s position on the World Bank’s recently released Worldwide Governance Indicators report remained steady in 2006, with the only slight decline seen in the voice and accountability category, while a slight up-tick in regulatory quality was recorded.”

South Korea's freedom of speech, corruption levels and other crucial state governance indicators worsened last year, according to the World Bank. The Washington-based bank reported that freedom of speech in Korea deteriorated in 2006 from a year earlier as an indicator measuring voice and accountability fell to 0.71 from 0.78 during the one year period. The higher the index is, the better the situation...

Daniel Kaufmann, director of global governance at the bank, said the gains in countries straddling all six continents are hopeful news. 'Even though our indicators do not constitute a precise international ranking of countries, policymakers and academics agree that good governance matters for economic development.' '”

Good governance is not the sole preserve of the richest industrialized countries but can be found around the world, a research institute at the World Bank said Tuesday. Countries such as Chile, Botswana and Estonia all are vibrant democracies with little corruption, the institute said in a report entitled ‘Governance Matters 2007: World Governance Indicators 1996-2006.’ Sounding an upbeat note on Africa, the survey said a number of countries on the continent are making improvements, but there have been some declines, notably in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea. Such improvements are considered critical for aid effectiveness and for sustained long-run economic growth. “

A World Bank report that measures factors like corruption control, government accountability and absence of violence, released on Tuesday, shows little overall improvement in governance worldwide despite increasing focus on the issue. But cautioning against reading too much into global averages, the bank's latest Worldwide Governance Indicators (www.govindicators.org) also reveal that individually some governments, including those in Africa, could make a difference relatively quickly when they tackled governance reforms.”

World Bank: Some African countries are making significant strides on the path to good governance
Africa News (Netherlands), 11 July 2007

The report, Governance Matters, 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators 1996-2006 being launched today by the World Bank Institute and the World Bank Development Economics Vice-presidency, shows that a number of countries - including in Africa - are making progress in improving governance and fighting corruption. This is encouraging given that good governance and corruption control are fundamental for long-term growth and reducing poverty.”

WB says that some African countries have made improvements in the way they govern themselves but the progress has been uneven. In a statement World Bank researchers say, over the past eight years, several African countries has made advances in different areas. It says Kenya, Niger, Sierra Leone made progress in freedom of expression and allowing citizens more participation in choosing leaders. Algeria and Liberia, it says, strengthened the rule of law. In the area of political stability, Sierra Leone and Algeria are mentioned again. These two countries, along with Angola, Libya, Rwanda, are praised for improving their political stability. One of the researchers involved, Daniel Kauffman says the data show it is possible to make considerable progress in a short period of time.”

Bribery is costing the world $1 trillion a year with the burden falling disproportionately on the billion or so people living in extreme poverty, the World Bank said yesterday. In a report on the quality of governance in the world's countries over the past decade, the Bank added that many poor countries had significantly improved governance and clamped down on corruption in recent years. ‘Such improvements are critical for aid effectiveness and for sustained long-run growth,’ said Daniel Kaufmann, co-author of the report and director of global programmes at the World Bank Institute, the Bank's research arm.”

The World Bank presented a report on Tuesday analyzing the quality of governance in 212 countries. The study underscores improvements in Kenya, Rwanda, Algeria and Tajikistan and declines in countries such as Belarus, Bolivia and Cote d’Ivoire. Russia has made no progress over the past decade, according to the report which ranks this country close to infamous regimes in Venezuela and Iran. The new Governance Matters report for 1996-2006 says quality of governance in Russia has remained the same. Indicators are also the same for Italy, Vietnam, Brazil, India and China.”

Some progress in global corruption fight
Radio Australia (Australia), 11 July 2007

“A World Bank report has cited some progress in the global fight against corruption, but warns that overall problems with stability and poor governance remain entrenched in many regions. The 1996-2006 Worldwide Governance Indicators report showed a number of African countries had demonstrated progress. The United States was notable for its decline in five of six areas over the 10-year span, including control of corruption and government effectiveness, and showing its sharpest decline in political stability.”

Romania has made progress in the fields of corruption
ROMPRES (Romania), 11 July 2007

“Romania has made progress in the fields of corruption control, civic freedoms, law compliance and quality of regulations, under conditions of a drop of indicators that describe political stability and government's efficiency, estimate World Bank analysts in their study 'Governance Indicators: 1996-2006'.”

Quality of civil service 'better'
New Straits Times (Malaysia), 11 July 2007

“In the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators released yesterday, the country [Malaysia]'s scores for last year compared with 2005 improved in government effectiveness, regulatory quality and control of corruption. “

S'pore stays in league of best run countries
Business Times Singapore, 11 July 2007

“In Governance Matters, 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators 1996-2006, released yesterday in Washington, DC, World Bank researchers rate Singapore particularly strongly - as they have in earlier editions of the study - for government effectiveness (quality of policy formulation and implementation, and of the civil service) and regulatory quality (reflected in sound, market-friendly policies).”

“The World Bank released a study today that said several African nations have improved their overall governance over the last decade, which the report said is ‘critical’ if these countries are going to use aid more effectively and promote economic growth. The World Bank cited Algeria, Angola, Kenya, Liberia, Libya, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania for making progress in some of the key areas identified with improved governance. These areas include accountability, rule of law, political stability and control of corruption.”

“A new World Bank report has said Nigeria’s record of political instability and major violence is yet to improve even though many African countries are making remarkable progress in the area of governance and anti-corruption. The report, entitled ‘Governance Matters 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators 1996-2006’, released yesterday in Washington D.C., stated the level of progress within the period under review was ‘pretty encouraging’, considering the fact that good governance and corruption control were instrumental to long-term growth and poverty reduction. “

"South Africa has surprisingly improved its control of corruption by 3%, moving from 68% to 71%, according to the World Bank report published yesterday in Washington. There is no doubt this will come as a shock to most South Africans. There has been an outcry as far as corruption is concerned and even government departments are not immune to this disease. The Travelgate scandal comes to mind, whereby some senior ANC officials were fingered, including ousted former ANC chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe.

‘It is difficult to say what criteria the World Bank used to come to those corruption figures. For me, a 3% improvement in corruption would mean the policies put in place by the government in fighting crime and corruption are working.’ ‘However, maybe we would need a bigger picture and define what constitutes corruption. The World Bank might describe it differently to what South Africans view as corruption,’ says Sizwe Nana, a director at the Social Development Ministry Research department. "

“Armenia has somewhat regressed in terms of rule of law in recent years, while developing a more stable political system and improving its legal framework, according to a global survey of governance conducted by the World Bank. The survey, made public late Tuesday, rated more than 200 countries of the world on six indicators of governance, including political stability, government accountability, the rule of law and the extent of government corruption. The World Bank also assessed the effectiveness of their governments and the quality of laws enacted by them. “

“According to the World Bank, a number of countries are making progress in improving governance and fighting corruption. In a new report released Tuesday, the World Bank says good governance and corruption control are fundamental for economic development and the reduction of poverty....
‘Governance’ is a relatively new term referring to the effectiveness of institutions, business and civic mechanisms, and policies governing a country. In a report released Tuesday, ‘Worldwide Governance Indicators 1996 – 2006’, the World Bank says a considerable number of countries have made great strides in improving governance over the past decade.”

World Bank cites some progress in global corruption fight
AFP (France), 10 July 2007

“A World Bank report released on Tuesday cited some progress in the global fight against corruption but warned that overall, problems with stability and poor governance remain entrenched in many regions. ‘We do not find that indicators, on the whole, have improved significantly but there are striking examples,’ said Daniel Kaufmann, one of the authors of the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) 1996-2006 report.”

“African nations have taken the biggest steps in reducing corruption over the past 10 years, the World Bank has said. A report measuring the quality of government in 212 countries from 1996 to 2006 found Africa had shown the greatest improvement. The report judged whether countries had free media, political stability, the rule of law and control of corruption. Countries in decline included Zimbabwe and Venezuela, but there were as many gainers as losers....

The bank's Governance Matters, 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators 1996-2006 study highlighted the number of African countries that had made great strides in improving various aspects of government.”

“Governance has significantly improved in a number of African countries, according to a report released today by the World Bank. The report, ‘Governance Matters, 2007: Worldwide Governance and Indicators, 1996-2006’, found that some African countries have made strides toward cutting corruption and improving governance, but many still face tremendous challenges. ‘The hopeful news is that a considerable number of countries, including in Africa, are showing that it is possible to make significant governance progress in a relatively short period of time,’ Daniel Kaufmann, a co-author of the report, said. ‘Such improvements in governance are critical for aid effectiveness and for sustained long-run growth.’ “

“Global efforts to cut corruption and improve government quality have made little progress in the last 10 years, despite bright spots in Africa and Eastern Europe, the World Bank said Tuesday. The aid agency's global governance report for 2006 shows several regions backsliding or stagnating since 2004 in the fight against graft, including East and South Asia, Latin America and even the rich nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).”

“The World Bank, in a report released Tuesday, says some African countries have made significant improvements in the way they govern themselves. But the survey, covering 200 rich and poor countries, says progress has been uneven. “

“Africa, often characterized as a place of epic corruption and misrule, emerged in a World Bank report released Tuesday as a continent of great variety, with some countries making extraordinary progress over the past decade, while others have moved backwards. The most comprehensive data base on governance for more than 200 countries undermines the notion of "Afro-pessimism," the World Bank said, and also established that industrialized, wealthy nations also struggle with corruption and bad governance.

The report, authored by Kaufmann, Aart Kraay and Massimo Mastruzzi of the World Bank, follows a decade of research culled from information provided by an ideologically diverse array of groups. ‘This is the best data source on governance now,’ said Steve Radelet, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, a Washington research group. "Fifteen years ago, we didn't talk about this stuff."

“Governance has improved significantly in Serbia, Algeria, Tajikistan and Rwanda since 1998, but Thailand and Argentina have fallen back on several key measures, according to a World Bank report published on Tuesday. The Governance Indicators report also shows a deterioration in governance on multiple measures in Zimbabwe, Eritrea, Côte D’Ivoire, Nepal and Venezuela.

A number of governments are angry about the headline findings, including Argentina, though the data show that its ratings, which fell sharply in the early 2000s, have improved over the past four years. Some governments argue that the bank is in no position to preach on governance, following its own crisis over former president Paul Wolfowitz’s handling of a secondment package for his girlfriend. Others, including China, question whether the World Bank should be involved at all in rating countries on metrics such as accountability."

“While Venezuela has not improved in terms of governance, other countries, such as Chile, Uruguay and Costa Rica are almost at the same level as rich nations, said Tuesday the World Bank. In a paper entitled ‘Worldwide Governance Indicators: 1996-2006,’ the World Bank noted that these emerging countries are better than some industrialized nations, such as Greece and Italy, Reuters reported. ‘The situation in Latin America is much varied,’ Daniel Kauffmann, co-author of the paper and director of World Programs at the World Bank Institute, told Reuters.”

“A number of countries, including many in Africa, are making progress in improving governance and fighting corruption, according to a report released by the World Bank on Tuesday. The report, Governance Matters, 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators 1996-2006, builds on research on the importance of governance and its impact on development over the past decade.”

Improvements on the fight against corruption, the results are still humble (WB)
Agence France Presse (France), 10 July 2007

“The management of public matters and the fight against the corruption have advanced in several countries, but the results are still humble, according to a new study from the World Bank launched on Tuesday.”

Cumpliendo con una ley, cada año, en la misma fecha y simultáneamente, el Departamento de Estado publica un reporte sobre derechos humanos para cada país del mundo, con excepción, por supuesto, de los Estados Unidos. Aquellos que entre nosotros han criticado el reporte culpan al gobierno americano por su contenido. Una lectura del texto revelaría que las principales fuentes de información fueron la Comisión Dominicana de Derechos Humanos y el Instituto Dominicano de Derechos Humanos. El reporte recoge lo que los propios dominicanos decimos. Plantea que la corrupción gubernamental "es un serio problema", pero cita como su fuente los indicadores de gobernabilidad para todos los países que prepara el Banco Mundial.

El secretario general de la OEA, Miguel Insulza, habló sobre los fenómenos populismo y corrupción, en boga en América, su futuro y sus consecuencias.
¿Que piensa del último informe que presento el Instituto del Banco Mundial sobre la alta percepción de corrupción en el país? En general, la percepción en el mundo entero es más negativa que lo que es la realidad y la razón es la falta de transparencia; uno tiende a pensar que lo que no se le informa es porque se nos esta ocultando algo y lo importante es que vayamos avanzando en esto.

Honduras confía en lograr las metas del Milenio
La Prensa (Honduras), 23 Enero 2008

Enrique Reina García, vicecanciller de la República, contó que el país avanza en el cumplimiento de las tareas asignadas para continuar siendo elegible por ese programa, que destinó a Honduras 215 millones de dólares, de los que resta por desembolsar 116. Son estos últimos los que el año anterior se pusieron en peligro debido al alto nivel corrupción que percibieron la mayoría de organizaciones no gubernamentales y otras instituciones vinculadas al tema. Esa alta percepción de corrupción fue recogida en un estudio del Instituto del Banco Mundial. Eso produjo el temor de que estos 116 millones de dólares podrían no ser desembolsados a Honduras.

Para Martin Ochoa, administrador de la Cuenta del Milenio en Honduras, el camino esta demasiado cuesta arriba para convencer a la MCC de que se ha enderezado la ruta. "La evaluacion es con base en percepcion. Creo que tambien hay que divulgar las acciones que se estan haciendo para mejorar la percepcion, porque de nada sirve que luchemos contra la corrupcion y no se divulgue", indico. Honduras registro 4.7 en la evaluacion sobre corrupcion, cuya media a alcanzar para no salir mal evaluado es 5. El puntaje se obtiene mediante una encuesta sobre percepcion de corrupcion que efectua el Instituto del Banco Mundial.

Un informe del BM destaca que RD mantiene bajos los indicadores de gobernabilidad, que en algunos ha tenido progresos y reveses en otros.

Mediante una videoconferencia, Daniel Kaufmann, presidente del Banco Mundial, dijo que la transparencia de los gobiernos incide drásticamente en los niveles de gobernabilidad y democracia. Este derecho, en boca de la Asociación de Periodistas de El Salvador (APES), podría comenzar a garantizarse si en el país al menos existiera una ley de acceso a la información pública.

De acuerdo con el Programa Sectorial mejorará la estabilidad política y ausencia de violencia en México, entre otros rubros, al final del sexenio del presidente, Felipe Calderón. Según Gobernación, la intención es pasar del nivel de libre expresión y asociación en México, desde 52.4 hasta 64%, según los Indicadores del Banco Mundial, con lo que dice que mejoraría México 22%. En cuanto al nivel de estabilidad política y ausencia de violencia en México pasar de 32.7 al 40%, igual con base en indicadores del Banco Mundial según índice de gobernabilidad.

La reacción del gobierno era la esperada. De entrada han restado credibilidad al informe realizado por el Instituto del Banco Mundial (BM), en el que se refleja que Honduras mostró un deterioro en el combate a la corrupción durante el año pasado, es decir, el primer año de gobierno del presidente Manuel Zelaya. EL HERALDO consultó sobre el tema al canciller de la República, Milton Jiménez, y él dijo que “primeramente ese es un informe del Instituto del Banco Mundial, no del Banco Mundial, y el Instituto es un órgano de apoyo al BM... por otro lado, el informe se refiere a la percepción de la sociedad civil, que algunas tienen un sesgo de carácter político”.

Sin embargo, como acaba de recordarnos el director del Instituto del Banco Mundial, Daniel Kaufmann, a la larga la salud institucional de un país es económicamente decisiva. Según el funcionario, "cuando se mejora el Estado de derecho y se controla la corrupción, se recibe en el largo plazo un incremento en el ingreso per cápita del país equivalente al 300%". El porcentaje citado por Kaufmann no es arbitrario. Desde hace varios años equipos del Banco Mundial han intentado medir la incidencia económica del respeto por la ley, el buen funcionamiento de las instituciones políticas, la confiabilidad que merecen los gobernantes y los jueces, además de la ausencia relativa de la corrupción, y han llegado a la conclusión de que, lejos de tratarse de detalles meramente anecdóticos, son fundamentales. El ejemplo preferido por Kaufmann es el brindado por Irlanda que, señala, en 1980 igualaba a la Argentina en su ingreso per cápita, pero que en la actualidad debe de estar entre los tres o cuatro países más ricos del mundo.

Banco Mundial elogia al Perú en lucha contra la corrupción
El Comercio (Peru), 14 Noviembre 2007

En la cita, organizada por el Banco Mundial, Távara explicó las acciones adoptadas en nuestro país no solo contra la corrupción, sino también para impulsar y promocionar la ética judicial y la gestión administrativa con especial énfasis en todo lo relacionado al manejo del presupuesto judicial. Asimismo, compartió experiencias con sus colegas latinoamericanos sobre la utilización de indicadores en la gestión y los procesos de implementación de la reforma procesal penal en la región. Francisco Távara se entrevistó con Daniel Kaufmann, director de Programas del Instituto del Banco Mundial, y con Nicholas Manning, gerente sectorial de Gestión Pública para la Región de América Latina, entre otros.

Director del Banco Mundial dijo que hay que crecer con más instituciones
La Nacion (Argentina) 11 Noviembre 2007

En su rol de director del Instituto del Banco Mundial, Daniel Kaufman se especializó en el análisis de la forma en que el capital institucional incide en el desarrollo de las naciones. La palabra clave, para él, es gobernanza , entendida como "el arte de gobernar para el logro de un desarrollo económico, social e institucional duradero". Con un acento que remite al Chile que abandonó hace cuatro décadas, Kaufman explica por qué estos temas no deben ser reducidos a una necesidad de corrección política, sino que tienen consecuencias económicas.

Con los casos Skanska, Miceli y la valija venezolana como trasfondo, los empresarios reunidos en IDEA debatieron ayer sobre corrupción. Pero no apuntaron al actual ni a otro Gobierno en particular. Y aceptaron también su parte en la culpa. En el Coloquio que se realiza en Mar del Plata y termina hoy, el primero en trazar un diagnóstico sobre el tema fue Daniel Kaufman, director del Instituto del Banco Mundial. "Existe un desafío enorme en América latina en cuestiones como control de corrupción, donde sus países se encuentran por debajo de los del Caribe", dijo.

El director del Instituto del Banco Mundial, Daniel Kaufmann, planteó el tema corrupción como desafío para el continente y el titular de la vendida a Brasil Quickfood, Luis Bameule, señaló que "hacen falta políticas públicas claras, transparentes y de largo plazo, reconocer el valor y funcionamiento de los mercados", y mencionó como causantes: la falta de castigo, los impuesto distorsivos que impulsan a trabajar en negro, la preferencia a los acuerdos particulares por sobre las normas generales y la debilidad de las instituciones.

Intrigado por las respuestas de Hamilton, acudí a otro trabajo colgado en la red: Governance Matters VI: Aggregate and Individual Governance Indicators 1996-2006 , suscrito por Kaufmann, Aart Kraay, y Massimo Mastruzzi, pertenecientes los tres, asimismo, al Banco Mundial. En el texto, se pondera la evolución de los diversos países en materias tales como la transparencia de la administración, la eficacia del Gobierno, o la fiabilidad de la ley a lo largo de los últimos diez años. Pues bien, con referencia al 2003, o al 2004, España empeora, y empeora seriamente, en casi todos los apartados. Los datos sobre la eficacia del gobierno son terroríficos, y muy malos los referidos a la fiabilidad de la ley.

No en vano, Venezuela es uno de los países con niveles más bajos de desarrollo institucional de la región latinoamericana (en términos, por ejemplo, de calidad del Estado de Derecho, control de la corrupción, desempeño de la Administración Pública o Efectividad Gubernamental, Calidad Regulatoria, Transparencia y Rendición de Cuentas. De estos 6 indicadores de gobernabilidad, Venezuela en Control de la Corrupción obtuvo 12,6 puntos, cuando se midieron los niveles de control para evitar prácticas corruptas de sus funcionarios públicos. Cifras indican el rango del país entre todas las naciones del mundo, medido en percentiles Entre 0 y 100, donde 0 es el más bajo y 100 el más alto. Si se compara con las cifras del 1996/2004, Venezuela ha deteriorado sus indicadores de gobernabilidad.

Reducir sobornos en la obtención de licencias y permisos para cualquier trámite, así como eliminar los intereses creados en los procesos gubernamentales, son los puntos específicos que Daniel Kaufmann, especialista del Banco Mundial en materia de corrupción y gobernabilidad, detecta en México como limitantes para alcanzar la gobernabilidad. Manifestó que nuestro país se encuentra en luz amarilla, esto es, que se tiene que encontrar la manera sobre la cual ir caminando para lograr disminuir todas estas prácticas que limitan el desarrollo del país. Kaufmann explicó que ahora existen formas más sofisticadas de intereses creados, y por ello, México, conceptuado como un país de potencia e importancia, debe encontrar la manera "de pegar un salto" y mejorar en 5 o 10 años sobre el tema, ya que en general, en los países de América Latina la corrupción es un desafío enorme.

"Corrupcion", Oppenheimer Presenta (Miami ), Octubre 10, 2007
(Video presentation #183)

Ineficaz lucha contra corrupción. Un reciente informe del Banco Mundial sobre indicadores de buen gobierno revela que los países latinoamericanos y caribeños son los que menos combaten la corrupción. Según el informe “Diez años de mediciones de la calidad de la gestión de gobierno”, que evalúa la calidad de la gestión de gobierno entre 1996 y el 2006 e incluye seis indicadores de gobernabilidad, la efectividad en la lucha contra la corrupción en la mayoría de los 18 países de la región evaluados no logra superar el 50%. Los indicadores de buen gobierno miden la representación y la rendición de cuentas, estabilidad política y ausencia de casos graves de violencia, efectividad gubernamental, calidad regulatoria, estado de derecho y control de corrupción.

Hoy Chile es el país más desarrollado de Latinoamérica si se observa un conjunto de indicadores. En la región es: el país menos corrupto (20 de 163 según Transparencia Internacional); la economía más libre, según el Índice de Libertad Económica de los institutos Cato y Fraser; el segundo país con mejor calidad de vida según las Naciones Unidas; el país con mejor ambiente de negocios según el Banco Mundial; el mejor posicionado en cinco de los seis indicadores de gobernabilidad del Banco Mundial (en uno de ellos es el segundo); el país con más libertades civiles y políticas según Freedom House; y el tercer país con la prensa más libre según Reporteros Sin Fronteras.

Resulta trágico observar que Venezuela ocupa el último lugar general y ese mismo sitio tanto en “Estabilidad Política” como en “Calidad Regulatoria”. En los otros cuatro factores estamos consistentemente situados en el penúltimo lugar. Es decir, en todos los órdenes estamos en situación crítica. Si revisamos las series correspondiente al lapso comprendido entre 1998 y 2006, nos encontraremos que cada una de las características se ha deteriorado a valores cercanos a la mitad o peor, todo esto está ocasionado por las actuaciones de las distintas ramas del poder público. Cuan lejos estamos de ser una nación respetable y de que sus ciudadanos nos sintamos orgullosos de ella y cuanto trabajo hará falta para que lleguemos a situaciones deseables. La lucha es larga y profunda.

Mi opinión: Mi primera reacción cuando escuché sobre el ranking del Banco Mundial fue preguntarme si la institución financiera tiene la autoridad moral para medir la corrupción mundial: el propio Banco Mundial acaba de estar en el centro de un escándalo de corrupción, cuando se encontró que su ex presidente Paul Wolfowitz le había dado un trabajo muy bien remunerado en el banco a su novia. Pero cuando Kaufmann y otros me recordaron que el Banco Mundial actuó rápidamente en el caso y despidió Wolfowitz —lo que es más de lo que hace la mayoría de los países cuando sus presidentes les encuentran un buen empleo a sus novias— decidí darle el beneficio de la duda al estudio.

Uruguay ocupa el tercer lugar entre los países de América Latina que mejor combaten la corrupción, precedido solo por Chile y Costa Rica, según un informe publicado por el Banco Mundial (BM) sobre la gobernabilidad en el mundo. El primer lugar -con 100%- lo ocupa Finlandia, mientras que el último corresponde a Haití con apenas 2,4%, o sea que el 97,6% de las naciones del mundo son menos corruptas.

Los cuatro desafíos que tiene Chile para mejorar su gobernabilidad
El Mercurio (Chile), 4 Agosto 2007

En este informe, Chile se ubicó como líder de América Latina y si bien Kaufmann destaca la posición de Chile también se refiere a los aspectos que nuestro país debería optimizar para mejorar aún más su posición. Respecto de la corrupción, destaca que cuando ha habido escándalos Chile ha tenido la capacidad de reaccionar, "tanto la sociedad civil, los medios de comunicación, pero también el gobierno que ha sacado programas y reformas importantes en el pasado. Por ejemplo, toda la reforma de despolitizar el servicio público y bajar el número de personas con cuoteo político. Chile tiene una capacidad institucional muy importante de reaccionar a un escándalo".

El país que en una época tuvo unas de las peores instituciones policiales y judiciales de los países de la antigua Unión Soviética, Georgia hoy en día presenta el mejor desempeño en la lucha contra la corrupción y el segundo mejor en términos de un efectivo estado de derecho, de acuerdo con el último informe de gobernabilidad del Banco Mundial. Más aún, las radicales reformas de Saakashvili demuestran que mejorar no toma generaciones. Georgia ha subido en el escalafón más de 20 puntos porcentuales en tres años.

Los resultados del ranking no me sorprendieron. Haití ha estado en caos desde hace décadas, y Venezuela está atravesando por uno de sus periódicos "booms petroleros" que desatan una orgía de corrupción, agravada en esta oportunidad por un régimen autoritario que ha suprimido mecanismos de control independientes y ha limitado la libertad de prensa. La buena noticia para América Latina es que el ranking muestra que la corrupción no es un fenómeno biológico, ni geográfico: Chile tiene los mismos o menores niveles de corrupción que Estados Unidos, y Uruguay y Costa Rica figuran como países menos corruptos que Grecia o Italia. O sea que con instituciones democráticas, una prensa libre y un servicio civil profesional -no politizado- la corrupción puede ser reducida en cualquier país del mundo.

Desde hace años, hablar de buen gobierno no implica necesariamente recaer en una gastada retórica. Ahora es posible establecer mediciones y criterios rigurosos para determinar cuando se está en presencia de un buen gobierno y cuando no. El gobierno de Salta, todavía lejos de alcanzar los estándares objetivos que definen a un buen gobierno. No debe confundirse buen gobierno con aquel que beneficia a una clase gobernante y a grupos de intereses a ella vinculados. Buen gobierno es el que mejora el nivel de desarrollo, la calidad de vida y la calidad institucional, controla la corrupción y reduce la pobreza y la desigualdad social.

Titulado ‘Indicadores mundiales anuales sobre gobernabilidad’, el informe no es un documento oficial del Banco Mundial, pero es producido por expertos del banco y tiene mucha influencia en los organismos financieros internacionales que se dedican al desarrollo. Según el diario Financial times, Argentina protesto porque el informe demuestra que la calidad de la gobernabilidad local era mejor en 1998 al final del gobierno de Menem que en el 2006 con Kirchner. “

Desde hace más de una década, el Banco Mundial mide la gobernanza de los países. Se trata de un índice sobre “el arte de gobernar para el logro de un desarrollo económico, social e institucional”, definió Daniel Kaufmann, director de Programas Mundiales en el Instituto del Banco Mundial. Uruguay está bien ubicado, agregó, pero debe pensar en cómo mejorar y cuán ambicioso quiere ser.”

Treinta y tres fuentes de datos resumidas en seis indicadores para 213 países durante el 2006. Esa fue la información que dio a conocer el Banco Mundial esta semana. Hace una década las aseveraciones comparando gobiernos eran especulaciones de sobremesa, con buenas anécdotas y pocos datos. Hoy se utilizan las metodologías estadísticas más avanzadas para construir índices que resumen lo que constituye un buen gobierno. Según estos indicadores, Chile es el país con mejor gobierno entre los países en desarrollo, sin variaciones significativas respecto del 2005, al nivel del promedio de los países desarrollados. “

Los índices de gobernabilidad de Uruguay son buenos según las mediciones -que ya llevan una década- y que realiza el Instituto del Banco Mundial. El punto aún relativamente flaco, está en los aspectos de regulación de su economía. Los indicadores de gobernabilidad de 212 países fueron divulgados por el Instituto del Banco Mundial (BM) el pasado martes y en términos generales, Uruguay se ubicó en el tercio superior del mundo y entre segundo y tercero en la región, después de Chile, y alternándose, según la medición, con Costa Rica. “

La Contraloría General del gobierno brasileño calificó de ‘ridículo’ el informe ‘Indicadores globales de gobernabilidad’ del Banco Mundial, que señaló un retroceso en la lucha contra la corrupción en ese país. ‘Es simplemente ridículo afirmar, sobre la base de ese tipo de indicador, que el control de la corrupción empeoró en Brasil’, dijo en una nota oficial el ministro Jorge Hage, titular de la Contraloría General de la Unión, que es el organismo encargado de combatir las irregularidades dentro del Gobierno. Según el informe, el índice brasileño de control de la corrupción cayó a 47,1%, frente a 59,7% de 2000. Hage dijo que ‘el índice no mide el combate a la corrupción, sólo refleja percepciones’ basadas en las noticias sobre corrupción. El gobierno brasileño asegura que se habla más y hay más noticias sobre corrupción en Brasil porque el combate de ese mal es mayor.”

Uruguay retrocedió en varios indicadores de gobernabilidad, aunque junto con Chile y Costa Rica se acercan a los niveles de los países desarrollados según el ranking divulgado ayer por el Banco Mundial. El informe sobre Indicadores de la Gobernabilidad en el Ámbito Mundial 1996-2006 del organismo mide media docena de indicadores que denomina: Voz y Rendición de Cuentas, Estabilidad Política, Efectividad gubernamental, Calidad regulatoria, Estado de Derecho y Control de la corrupción.”

Los esfuerzos contra la corrupción y para mejorar la gobernabilidad en la última década han arrojado mejores resultados en países en desarrollo, y han superado incluso avances en naciones más industrializados, reportó el Banco Mundial. Empero, estos avances han sido empañados por retrocesos en otras áreas de buen gobierno, concluyó el nuevo informe ‘Indicadores de Gobernabilidad en el Ambito Mundial 1996-2006’ dado a conocer este martes por la institución.”

Chile lidera en gobernabilidad en A. Latina y alcanza a desarrollados
El Mercurio (Chile), 11 de julio de 2007

Chile está a la cabeza de la región en control de la corrupción, calidad regulatoria y la efectividad del gobierno y se encuentra entre los países desarrollados en esta materia según el último informe del Banco Mundial, ‘El gobierno importa 2007’. Tanto así, que en América Latina nuestro país se ubica en primer lugar en cinco de los seis indicadores que mide el informe internacional -siendo levemente superado por Costa Rica en estabilidad política-, mientras que llega a superar a países como Hungría y Estados Unidos en este mismo ámbito.”

Felipe Calderón administra un país donde la eficiencia del gobierno y la calidad regulatoria ‘pasaron de panzaso’ en una evaluación del Banco Mundial que permite conocer los avances en gobernabilidad. Entre seis valores que integran los Indicadores de Gobernabilidad, el que obtuvo la menor calificación de 32 puntos sobre 100, resultó el de estabilidad política. Esta calificación mide la de violencia a la que está expuesta la administración, así como la percepción de riesgo para enfrentar procesos inconstitucionales o violentos, incluso terroristas, para derrocar al gobierno. “

En América Latina, México es superado por Colombia, El Salvador, Panamá, Costa Rica y Chile en lo que se refiere a control de la corrupción, revelan los Indicadores de Gobernabilidad 2006, elaborados por el Banco Mundial.”

Progresos en gobernabilidad se desaceleraron en Colombia, entre los años 2005 y 2006
El Tiempo (Colombia), Julio 11 de 2007

"Así lo establece un informe anual que realiza el Banco Mundial (BM), que mide qué tan bien gobernadas están 212 naciones. El documento del 2007, titulado 'Governance matters' (El buen gobierno importa), contiene datos desde 1996 hasta 2006.”

La calidad de gobierno ha mejorado significativamente en Serbia, Argelia, Tajikistán y Ruanda desde 1998, pero Tailandia y Argentina se han rezagado en varias medidas clave, de acuerdo con un informe del Banco Mundial publicado ayer. El reporte de Indicadores de Gobierno también mostró deterioro en distintos sectores de los países de Zimbaue, Eritrea, Costa de Marfil, Nepal y Venezuela.”

Costa Rica superó o igualó a algunas potencias mundiales en un estudio de indicadores de gobernabilidad en el mundo entre 1996 y el 2006, presentado ayer por el Banco Mundial en Washington.”

Mientras Chile, Uruguay y Costa Rica están casi a la par de naciones ricas en lo referente a niveles de gobernabilidad, Venezuela, Zimbabue, Costa de Marfil y Belarús conforman el grupo de países que experimenta deficiencias crecientes en la calidad de sus gobiernos. Estas son algunas de las conclusiones del estudio ‘Indicadores de la gobernabilidad en el ámbito mundial 1996-2006’, realizado por el Banco Mundial. Daniel Kaufmann, coautor del estudio y director de Progra-mas del Banco Mundial explicó: ‘Hubo una cierta mejora reciente en gobernabilidad en países como Guatemala. Chile está mucho mejor, Por otro lado Venezuela está peor’.”

La República Dominicana mantiene bajos los indicadores de gobernabilidad, y aunque en algunos de ellos ha logrado progresos, en otros ha registrado reveses, según los resultados de los indicadores de gobernabilidad del Banco Mundial, actualizados al año 2006.”

La gestión de los asuntos públicos y la lucha contra la corrupción han avanzado en numerosos países, pero el saldo sigue siendo modesto, consideró el Banco Mundial en un estudio sobre el tema. ’No hemos descubierto que los indicadores globales hayan mejorado significativamente’, dijo hoy Daniel Kaufmann, coautor del informe Los indicadores de gobernabilidad en el mundo 1996-2006.”

El Banco Mundial concluyó que Chile, Uruguay y Costa Rica están alcanzando niveles de gobernabilidad en América Latina similares a los países ricos, mientras otros, como Venezuela, no han presentado mejorías. En el estudio ‘Indicadores de la Gobernabilidad en el Ámbito Mundial 1996-2006’, el Banco señaló que esos países emergentes superan a algunas naciones industrializadas, como Grecia e Italia. Daniel Kaufmann, coautor del estudio, dijo a la agencia de noticias Reuters que la situación en América Latina es muy variada.”

Uruguay obtuvo un puntaje superior a varios países industrializados en el Índice de Gobernabilidad 1996-2006 elaborado por el Banco Mundial y divulgado en Washington. En el documento se ponderó que ‘el mejoramiento de la gobernabilidad permite luchar contra la pobreza y elevar los niveles de vida’. “

Chile y Venezuela, en los dos extremos de la escala que mide la corrupción
La Capital (Argentina), 11 de julio de 2007

Chile, en el lado bueno, y Venezuela, en el malo, son los polos opuestos en Latinoamérica en cuanto a control de la corrupción, según un estudio de gobernabilidad en el mundo entre 1996 y 2006 presentado por el Banco Mundial en Washington.”

Los esfuerzos contra la corrupción y para mejorar la gobernabilidad en la última década han arrojado mejores resultados en países en desarrollo, y han superado incluso avances en naciones más industrializados, reportó el Banco Mundial. Empero, estos avances han sido empañados por retrocesos en otras áreas de buen gobierno, concluyó el nuevo informe ‘Indicadores de Gobernabilidad en el Ambito Mundial 1996-2006″ dado a conocer este martes por la institución.”

Chile es el campeón del buen gobierno en Latinoamérica, según un nuevo informe del Banco Mundial (BM), en el que algunos países emergentes como Uruguay y Costa Rica salen mejor parados que naciones industrializadas como Italia o Grecia. Esa tendencia demuestra, según Daniel Kaufmann, co-autor del informe de origen chileno y considerado uno de los principales expertos mundiales en temas de gobernabilidad, que 'es posible tener buen gobierno y ser una economía emergente'. El informe 'Governance Matters, 2007' ('El buen gobierno importa, 2007') evalúa el progreso alcanzado por 212 naciones en el terreno del buen gobierno a lo largo de la última década.”

Chile, Uruguay y Costa Rica están alcanzando niveles de gobernabilidad en América Latina similares a países ricos, mientras otros, como Venezuela, no han presentado mejorías, dijo el martes el Banco Mundial. En el estudio ‘Indicadores de la Gobernabilidad en el Ambito Mundial 1996-2006’, el banco indicó que esos países emergentes están mejor posicionados que algunos industrializados como Grecia e Italia. “

La gestión de los asuntos públicos y la lucha contra la corrupción han avanzado en numerosos países, pero el saldo sigue siendo modesto, estimó el martes el Banco Mundial en un estudio sobre el tema. ‘No hemos descubierto que los indicadores globales hayan mejorado significativamente’, destacó Daniel Kaufmann, co-autor del informe sobre "los indicadores de gobernabilidad en el mundo 1996-2006", durante una conferencia de prensa el martes en Washington.”

Baja nota para la Argentina en corrupción
Ambito Financiero (Argentina), 10 de Julio de 2007

La Argentina es percibida como un país más corrupto que en años anteriores y tiene una mala calificación en esta materia si se lo compara con el resto del mundo, según un trabajo elaborado por el Banco Mundial. La entidad dio a conocer ayer la publicación «Indicadores de la gobernabilidad en el ámbito mundial 1996-2006», en donde la Argentina califica, en lo que concierne a control de la corrupción, con unos modestos 41 puntos sobre 100 (a mayor puntaje, mejor nota), muy lejos del país mejor ubicado en Latinoamérica -Chile, con 90- e inclusive por debajo del promedio de la región (58). Por suerte para el gobierno, la encuesta fue anterior al caso Skanska.”

Chile encabeza ranking de gobernabilidad del Banco Mundial en Latinoamérica
La Tercera (Chile), 11 de Julio de 2007

Chile es el campeón del buen gobierno en Latinoamérica. Según un informe del Banco Mundial (BM), presentado hoy en Washington y que analiza el periodo entre 1996 y 2006, nuestro país se ubica junto a Uruguay y Costa Rica en la parte más alta del estudio en cuanto a su gobernabilidad, con puntuaciones incluso superiores que las de países como Italia o Grecia. Los datos muestran que Chile ha logrado niveles similares a los de Estados Unidos o España en la lucha anticorrupción.”

Chile, Uruguay y Costa Rica están alcanzando niveles de gobernabilidad en América Latina similares a países ricos, mientras otros, como Venezuela, no han presentado mejorías, dijo ayer el Banco Mundial. En el estudio ‘Indicadores de la Gobernabilidad en el Ambito Mundial 1996-2006'’, el banco indicó que esos países emergentes están mejor posicionados que algunos industrializados como Grecia e Italia. ‘La situación en América Latina es muy variada’, dijo a Reuters Daniel Kaufmann, coautor del estudio y director de Programas Mundiales en el Instituto del Banco Mundial."

Banco Mundial destacó gobernabilidad de Chile y combate a la corrupción
Diario Financiero (Chile), 11 de Julio de 2007

El reporte ‘Indicadores de la Gobernabilidad en el Ámbito Mundial 1996-2006’ destacó que algunas economías emergentes, como Chile, ‘obtienen puntajes más altos en aspectos clave de la gobernabilidad que países industrializados como Grecia e Italia’. “

Inestabilidad, principal lastre: BM
El Tiempo (Colombia), 11 de Julio de 2007

Se mantienen los avances registrados desde hace una década en la lucha contra la corrupción. Tras una mejora en los indicadores de gobernabilidad del país en el 2004, entre el 2005 y el 2006 desaceleró ese proceso de recuperación que estaba sacando a Colombia de una muy mala clasificación mundial en esta materia. Así lo establece un informe anual que realiza el Banco Mundial (BM), que mide qué tan bien gobernadas están 212 naciones, dado que este es un factor clave para lograr crecimiento económico y reducir la pobreza. El informe del 2007, titulado Governance Matters (El buen gobierno importa) y que trae datos desde 1996 hasta el 2006 muestra que entre 1996 y el 2002 Colombia presentó fuertes retrocesos en sus indicadores de gobernabilidad, tales como participación ciudadana, estado de derecho, seguridad, capacidad del Estado para formular e implementar buenas políticas para el desarrollo y la calidad reguladora. “

Colombia va despacio en mejora de gobernabilidad
Portafolio (Colombia), 11 de Julio de 2007

"Según el Banco Mundial (BM) entidad que acaba de entregar un estudio sobre el tema, entre el 2002 y el 2005 la gobernabilidad del país presentó considerables mejoras, pero entre el 2005 y el 2006 no hubo cambios, al menos desde el punto de vista estadístico."

Banco Mundial resalta a Costa Rica en índice de gobernabilidad
La Nación (Costa Rica), 11 de Julio de 2007

Costa Rica superó o igualó a algunas potencias mundiales en un estudio de indicadores de gobernabilidad en el mundo entre 1996 y el 2006, presentado ayer por el Banco Mundial en Washington. Chile, Costa Rica y Uruguay son los países latinoamericanos que salen mejor librados en el informe e, incluso, están mejor posicionados que algunos industrializados como Grecia e Italia, subrayaron las agencias internacionales de prensa.”

RD mantiene bajo los índices de gobernabilidad, según informe
Hoy (República Dominicana), 11 de Julio de 2007

Modesto, el resultado de la lucha contra la corrupción: BM
La Jornada (México), 11 de Julio de 2007

La gestión de los asuntos públicos y la lucha contra la corrupción han avanzado en numerosos países, pero el saldo sigue siendo modesto, consideró el Banco Mundial en un estudio sobre el tema. 'No hemos descubierto que los indicadores globales hayan mejorado significativamente’, dijo hoy Daniel Kaufmann, coautor del informe Los indicadores de gobernabilidad en el mundo 1996-2006.”

Gobierno chileno líder de AL: BM
El Economista.com (México), 10 de Julio de 2007

Chile es el campeón del buen gobierno en Latinoamérica, según un nuevo informe del Banco Mundial (BM), en el que algunos países emergentes como Uruguay y Costa Rica salen mejor parados que naciones industrializadas como Italia o Grecia. Esa tendencia demuestra, según Daniel Kaufmann, co-autor del informe de origen chileno y considerado uno de los principales expertos mundiales en temas de gobernabilidad, que ‘es posible tener buen gobierno y ser una economía emergente’.

Chile lidera en América Latina ranking del BM sobre buen gobierno
El Mostrador (Chile), 10 de Julio de 2007

Chile lidera el ‘buen gobierno’ en Latinoamérica, según un nuevo informe del Banco Mundial (BM), en el que algunos países emergentes como Uruguay y Costa Rica salen mejor parados que naciones industrializadas como Italia o Grecia. Esa tendencia demuestra, según Daniel Kaufmann, co-autor del informe de origen chileno y considerado uno de los principales expertos mundiales en temas de gobernabilidad, que ‘es posible tener buen gobierno y ser una economía emergente’. El informe ‘Governance Matters, 2007’ (‘El buen gobierno importa, 2007’) evalúa el progreso alcanzado por 212 naciones en el terreno del buen gobierno a lo largo de la última década. Para elaborar la clasificación se tiene en cuenta el desempeño de los países en tres categorías distintas, cada una de las cuales incluye dos indicadores.”

BM: Chile, Uruguay y Costa Rica, bien en gobernabilidad
Panorama Digital (Venezuela), 11 de Julio de 2007

Gobernabilidad y corrupción: reprobados en México
México (El Financiero), 11 de Julio de 2007

Cuando en septiembre el Banco Mundial (BM), todavía presidido por Paul Wolfowitz, emitió el primer reporte que pretendía medir la calidad de gobierno y el grado de corrupción en los países que integran al organismo, la irritación fue creciendo por el factor de ‘condicionalidad’ que encerraba.
El informe lo produce el director de Gobernabilidad Global del Instituto del Banco Mundial, que dirige Daniel Kaufmann, y más allá de los resultados globales que no necesariamente correlacionan ‘desarrollo económico’ con ‘el grado de voz y participación de la ciudadanía en la elección de su gobierno, con la libertad de expresión o de asociación, y la libertad de su prensa’, es curioso que el BM se exente de ser evaluado.”

Panamá sale mal en informe sobre "buen gobierno"
El Panamá América (Panamá), 11 de Julio de 2007

La Republica de Panamá está perdiendo la lucha contra la corrupción, corriendo el riesgo que quedar rezagada en materia de transparencia y estabilidad política, si no se ponen correctivos urgentes en el sector público y privado. Este es el panorama que nos detalla un reciente informe del Banco Mundial, denominado ‘Governance Matters – 2007’ (El buen gobierno importa - 2007), que evalúa el progreso alcanzado por 212 naciones en el terreno del buen gobierno a lo largo de la última década."

Venezuela: Uno de los países más corruptos
El Nacional (Venezuela), 11 jullio 2007

La situación en América Latina es muy variada’, dijo Daniel Kaufmann, coautor del estudio y director de Programas Mundiales en el Instituto del Banco Mundial. ‘Hubo una cierta mejora reciente en gobernabilidad en países como Guatemala. Chile está mucho mejor, lo mismo para Uruguay y Costa Rica. Por otro lado Venezuela está peor’, agregó. “

No hubo novedades. El Banco Mundial dio a conocer los resultados del estudio Indicadores de la Gobernabilidad en el Ámbito Mundial 1996-2006, en el cual Venezuela está peor, según dijo Daniel Kaufmann, coautor del estudio a Reuters. No ha presentado mejorías en sus niveles de gobernabilidad, en tanto naciones como Costa Rica, Chile y Uruguay están casi a la par de países industrializados.”

Bien que le rapport sur la gouvernance de la Banque mondiale ait estimé que notre pays a connu, durant la période 2002-2006, une nette et régulière amélioration dans l’ensemble des principaux indicateurs de la gouvernance — ce rapport estime qu’il y a eu, en Algérie, une nette avancée dans les domaines de la responsabilité citoyenne, la stabilité politique et l’absence de violence — en réalité, en matière de gouvernance urbaine, notre pays est en-deçà de ce qui se fait dans les pays limitrophes de la Méditerranée.

Bonne gouvernance en Afrique - le Mali classé 14e sur 16 Etats de la Cédéao
All Africa / Les Echos (Afrique de Sud/France), 28 Août 2007

Selon un rapport de la Banque mondiale rendu public en juillet dernier, le Mali est loin, voire très loin de la palme d'or de la bonne gouvernance au sein de la Communauté économique des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest ( Cédéao ).

On retiendra également de ce rapport l'idée selon laquelle l'amélioration des conditions de vie des populations est le résultat d'une meilleure gouvernance et non l'inverse. Tout comme la bonne gouvernance, toujours selon le rapport, participe grandement à la lutte contre la pauvreté.

Les pays relient commerce et développement
All Africa (Afrique de Sud), 28 Aout 2007

Les pays privilégient l’assistance liée au commerce dans ce nouveau modèle de financement des projets de développement proposé par Millennium Challenge Corporation. …. Un des 16 critères d’éligibilité concerne la politique commerciale. Un indicateur du commerce, emprunté à Heritage Foundation, mesure l’ouverture au commerce international en se fondant sur les tarifs douaniers moyens et les barrières non tarifaires au commerce. Un autre (fourni par International Finance Corporation) concerne le «nombre de jours et le coût pour démarrer une entreprise» et un autre encore (hérité de l’Institut de la Banque mondiale) la «qualité de la réglementation»; ces indicateurs incitent les pays à améliorer le climat de l’investissement au bénéfice des investisseurs nationaux et étrangers.

Les indicateurs mondiaux de la gouvernance font apparaître les gains réalisés en Afrique subsaharienne
All Africa/Le Potentiel (DR Congo), 13 août 2007

Le monde - en tout cas le bloc formé par les pays développés - s'intéresse de plus en plus à l'épanouissement de l'Afrique. D'où, l'augmentation depuis quelque temps des fonds d'aide au continent noir. Mais, l'accroissement de l'aide fait ressurgir la question de la bonne gouvernance, sans laquelle l'aide destinée en Afrique n'aura qu'une portée limitée. La Banque mondiale et le FMI partagent cette évidence. Les deux institutions pensent que les pays pauvres, dont ceux admis à l'initiative PPTE, ont réalisé des progrès remarquables en matière de gouvernance et de lutte contre la corruption. Ces dix dernières années, des pays du monde entier, notamment parmi les plus pauvres d'Afrique, ont accompli des « progrès remarquables» en matière de gouvernance et de lutte contre la corruption, comme le révèle le tout dernier rapport sur les indicateurs mondiaux de la gouvernance (Worldwide Governance Indicators) publié par l'Institut de la Banque mondiale et la vice-présidence du groupe Économie du développement de la Banque mondiale.

Algérie a connu, depuis 2002, de grandes avancées compte tenu des indicateurs de gouvernance. Le rapport établi par les chercheurs de la Banque mondiale (BM) souligne, rappelle-t-on, que la paix et la stabilité sont désormais de retour dans notre pays. L’Algérie est le premier pays de la région Maghreb et Moyen-Orient à avoir entamé avec l’institut de la BM une collaboration fructueuse en matière de diagnostic de la gouvernance.

Une bonne gouvernance favorise le triplement du revenu annuel par habitant en Afrique, dans le cas de la Tunisie, les dernières modifications des lois du marché ont introduit une grande dose de transparence et de gouvernance avec :
- L'instauration des ouvertures financières publiques et la lecture des offres concurrentes
- La remise de l'offre financière par le soumissionnaire en main propre.
- L'instauration d'un système d'information et d'un comité de suivi et d'enquête des marchés publics auprès de la Commission Supérieure des Marchés Publics, instauré par le Décret N°2002-3158 du 17 Décembre 2002, portant réglementation des marchés publics.

Plusieurs pays africains dont le Kenya, le Niger, la Sierra Leone, la Tanzanie, le Botswana, ont réalisé des progrès en matière de gouvernance et de lutte contre la corruption en cinq ans, indique le rapport « Les problèmes de gouvernance, 2007 dans le monde pour la période 1996-2006 » publié mardi par l’Institut de la Banque mondiale (BM). “

La gestion des affaires publiques et la lutte contre la corruption sont en progrès dans de nombreux pays mais le bilan d'ensemble reste mitigé, a estimé mardi la Banque mondiale dans une étude.
«Nous n'avons pas découvert que dans l'ensemble les indicateurs se sont améliorés significativement», a dit Daniel Kaufmann, co-auteur du rapport sur «les indicateurs de gouvernance dans le monde 1996-2006», lors d'une conférence de presse mardi à Washington. “

Lancement de la 5e édition du Small Grant Program
Congo-Média, 10 juillet 2007

ouverture de ce séminaire a coïncidé avec la publication des Indicateurs sur la gouvernance à l'échelle mondiale par la Banque Mondiale.

Mme Maoungou a saisi l’occasion pour informer l’opinion sur l’importance d’une telle étude, en affirmant : « Dans un communiqué de presse du 15 septembre 2006, annonçant la parution du rapport Governance Matters 2007 : les Indicateurs de Gouvernance dans le monde pour la période 1996-2006, M. Daniel Kaufmann, directeur de la gouvernance mondiale à l'Institut de la Banque mondiale, a déclaré que les pays qui entreprennent des réformes constatent que « la bonne gouvernance » est reconnue par les investisseurs étrangers, les bailleurs de fonds, les responsables gouvernementaux et le grand public, comme primordiale et qu'elle se traduit par un niveau de vie plus élevé et une diminution de la pauvreté.

Un certain nombre de pays, y compris des pays africains, font des progrès en matière d' amélioration de la gouvernance et de lutte contre la corruption, indique un rapport de la Banque mondiale publié mardi. 'Le rapport, intitulé "Governance Matters, 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators 1996-2006" (Les problèmes de gouvernance, 2007: Indicateurs de gouvernance dans le monde pour la période 1996-2006), se base sur des recherches menées au cours de la dernière décennie sur l'importance de la gouvernance et son impact sur le développement.' “

Se desse às notícias que não lhe agradam a mesma atenção que concede à autolouvação, o presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva poderia dizer que "nunca neste país" o nível de corrupção andou tão elevado.

Cartas - Fórum Dos Leitores
O Estado de S. Paulo (Brasil), 12 de julho de 2007

Relatório de Assuntos de Governança do Banco Mundial (Bird) dá conta de que a corrupção no Brasil atingiu, em 2006, um “invejável” incremento de 200%! Que novidade! Como se nenhum brasileiro de bom senso esperasse por isso! Espera-se, agora, que o Estado e outros órgãos de expressão e de respeito da imprensa deste país deixem de praticar tão-somente o jornalismo declaratório, de extremo gosto do atual inquilino do Planalto, dedicando-se ainda muito mais ao jornalismo investigativo, denunciando as mazelas debaixo dos tapetes desta República eivada de salteadores. De minha parte, além da curiosidade sobre o que o eterno dissimulado de Brasília tem a dizer a respeito, estou convicto de que essa é a notícia que faltava ser divulgada aos incautos que elegeram aquele que transformou esta nação num reles sindicato, farto e amplo balcão de rentáveis negócios e negociatas, onde cada um que exerce poder na “deretoria” mete a mão grande, alguns por intermédio de seus “laranjas ao molho pardo” e outros por meio dos manos, compadres, filhos e “companheiros” congêneres e assemelhados.

Com a votação da LDO, facilitada pela ausência do senador Calheiros na presidência dos trabalhos, acabouse o primeiro semestre desta legislatura, eleita para suceder àquela que, num clichê muito surrado, foi chamada “a pior de todos os tempos”. Em relação ao déficit ético, a melhora foi pouca. Os fatos estão aí, só que agora concentrados no Senado. A produção legislativa, entretanto, melhorou muito em relação aos meses de inoperância que se seguiram à crise de 2005.

Há algo de podre na república brasileira
O Estado de S. Paulo (Brasil), 12 de julho de 2007

"Não faltava mais nada para confirmar aquilo que a imensa maioria dos brasileiros já percebeu há muito tempo: a corrupção vem se tornando mais persistente e disseminada, em que pesem os esforços dos governos para combatê-la. Um relatório do Banco Mundial (Bird), divulgado por irônica coincidência no mesmo dia em que a Polícia Federal anunciou ter desmantelado mais uma quadrilha especializada em fraudar licitações - dessa vez na Petrobrás -, pode ser interpretado como contestação à hipótese confortadora segundo a qual não é a corrupção que aumenta no Brasil, mas sim a sua visibilidade, graças à multiplicação das investidas policiais contra os corruptos.

Diputado Augusto Montiel: informe del Banco Mundial descalifica al país
Union Radio (Venezuela), 12 Julio 2007

"Estan buscando descalificar a los países que proponen frente al mundo vías alternas al capitalismo, imperialismo y neoliberalismo para su desarrollo", afirmó el diputado a la (AN), Augusto Montiel. El diputado a la Asamblea Nacional (AN) Augusto Montiel rechazó este martes el informe presentado por el Banco Mundial, en el cual señalan que la gobernabilidad en Venezuela ha empeorado en comparación con otros países latinoamericanos como Chile, Costa Rica y Uruguay.

"O ministro Jorge Hage, da Controladoria-Geral da União, divulgou nota ontem questionando os resultados do relatório divulgado pelo Banco Mundial (Bird) que mostrou que o nível de corrupção no Brasil atingiu o pior nível em dez anos. É simplesmente ridículo afirmar, com base nesse tipo de indicador, que o controle da corrupção piorou no Brasil. Em primeiro lugar, porque o índice não mede o combate à corrupção, refletindo apenas percepções sobre os fatos que são revelados sobre corrupção. E isso tem realmente aumentado no Brasil a partir do momento em que se passou a investigar e revelar a corrupção que sempre existiu", diz o ministro Hage na nota."

O presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva desfruta sólida posição em termos de avaliação de sua popularidade junto à população brasileira. Pelo menos essa tem sido a indicação detectada pelas pesquisas de opinião pública. Contudo, no recente levantamento do Instituto Sensus para a Confederação Nacional dos Transportes (CNT), enquanto Lula mantém folgada margem de aceitação por parte do eleitorado, o conceito da sociedade sobre a administração propriamente dita é bastante ruim.

No caso do Brasil, o controle da corrupção alcançou no ano passado a pior marca em dez anos. O índice brasileiro ficou em 47,1 em 2006, em uma escala de zero a cem. Um ano antes, situou-se em 48,1. Em 2000, o país teve um indicador de 59,1, o mais alto. O Brasil também viu deterioração nos últimos anos nos índices referentes à avaliação da eficiência do governo, da qualidade dos marcos regulatórios e da força da lei. Quanto à eficiência do governo, a marca do país foi de 52,1 no ano passado, em queda desde 2003. Esse indicador reflete a qualidade dos serviços públicos, a independência do governo e a implementação de políticas públicas.

Angola tem, entre os países lusófonos, a pior a classificação na maioria dos indicadores de governação do Banco Mundial, incluindo corrupção e eficácia governamental. No relatório Indicadores Globais da Governação 1998-2006, divulgado terça-feira ao final do dia, Angola surge no indicador ‘controlo da corrupção’ no percentil 8,7, o que significa que apenas 8,7 por cento dos 212 países incluídos estão abaixo deste nível.”

O nível de corrupção no Brasil é o pior em dez anos, segundo relatório anual de governança produzido pelo Banco Mundial (Bird) e divulgado ontem. De acordo com o levantamento, o país está em nível inferior ao que se encontrava quando a entidade começou a fazer esse estudo, em 1996. As melhoras observadas entre 1998 e 2000 (segundo mandato de FHC) e 2002 e 2003 (eleição e primeiro ano de mandato de Lula) foram anuladas pelos resultados dos últimos três anos.
O estudo é feito pelo Instituto do Banco Mundial e classifica 212 países e territórios de acordo com o desempenho em seis itens. Para tanto, leva em conta dados fornecidos por 33 fontes internacionais.

O controle da corrupção no Brasil atingiu em 2006 o seu pior patamar em dez anos, de acordo com um estudo divulgado nesta terça-feira, 10, pelo Banco Mundial (Bird). Segundo o relatório Assuntos de Governança, do Bird, o índice de controle de corrupção ‘mede a extensão em que o poder público é usado para ganhos privados, incluindo pequenas e grandes formas de corrupção, assim como o ´seqüestro´ do Estado pelas elites e pelos interesses privados’. O índice brasileiro de controle de corrupção caiu para 47,1 em 2006, em uma escala que vai de zero a cem. Em 2000, o país chegou a ter um índice de 59,1. Os indicadores do relatório do Banco Mundial são baseados em dados estatísticos coletados por diversas fontes.”

Für die Weltbank ist Sierra Leone schon längst eine Erfolgsgeschichte. In ihrem diesjährigen Bericht zu guter Regierungsführung gehört das Land – wie sein Nachbar Liberia – zu den Spitzenreitern in Sachen Fortschritt bei guter und effizienter Regierungsführung, Korruptionskontrolle, politischer Stabilität. Zieht man die Ausgangslage in Betracht, so sind das wirklich gute Nachrichten. Sie widerlegen das Image vom Krisendreieck Westafrikas: Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone. Über lange Zeit waren sie Synonym für Anarchie und Gewalt und untermauerten die These vom unrettbaren Krisenkontinent Afrika.

Zerrissen zwischen Moschee und Militär- LEITARTIKEL
Die Presse (Germany), 10 August 2007

In einem Bericht der Weltbank war kürzlich nachzulesen, dass Pakistan in punkto politischer Stabilität im untersten Zehntel aller Länder liegt; die Korruption sei heute nicht geringer als 1998 zu Zeiten der Regierung von Nawaz Sharif. Das Kernproblem bleibt bestehen: Nicht erst seit der Machtübernahme des islamistischen Generals Zia ul-Haq im Jahr 1977 verunmöglicht eine unheilige Allianz aus Mullahs und Militär eine Entwicklung des Landes in Richtung Demokratie und Normalität. Musharraf ist immer ein Gefangener dieses Systems geblieben.

Russlands beunruhigende Normalität; Zwischen Schwellenland-Problemen und Grossmacht-Ansprüchen
Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland), 2 August 2007

So ist es auch nicht verwunderlich, dass in der jüngst erschienenen Studie der Weltbank zur Qualität der Staatsführung in Russland in fünf Kategorien (politische Mitspracherechte, politische Stabilität und Abwesenheit von Gewalt, Effektivität der Regierung, Regulierungskompetenz und Kontrolle der Korruption) seit den Jahren 2002 und 2003 ein negativer Trend festgestellt wird; in der sechsten und letzten Kategorie (Rechtsstaatlichkeit) ist keine Entwicklung festzustellen. Das Aussenministerium zweifelt die Unparteilichkeit der Studien-Autoren an; der Verlauf der Indikatoren wird nicht diskutiert.

"Israel und die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate sind die Länder mit dem effektivsten Kampf gegen Korruption im Nahen Osten. Dies geht aus einem Bericht der Weltbank hervor, der am Dienstag veröffentlicht wurde."

Die Weltbank lobt Afrika; Mehr Regierungen befolgen demokratische Spielregeln und schaffen gute Voraussetzungen für die Entwicklung der Wirtschaft
Süddeutsche Zeitung (Deutschland), 12 July 2007

In einigen Kategorien der Regierungsführung lägen manche Entwicklungsländer besser als einige Industriestaaten, schreibt die Weltbank. Bei der Regierungseffizienz schneidet zum Beispiel Italien leicht schlechter ab als Ruanda. Weltweit gesehen habe sich good governance kaum verändert, weil sich die Länder mit Fortschritten und die Länder mit Rückschritten die Waage hielten, stellt Studienautor Kaufmann fest. In Deutschland ist die Qualität der meisten Kriterien stabil geblieben. Die Regierungseffizienz hat sich allerdings seit 1998 von 0,94 auf 0,88 verschlechtert, die Korruptionskontrolle von 1,0 auf 0,88. Die Skala reicht von +2,5 (beste Qualität) bis -2,5 (schlechteste Qualität). Korruption sieht die Weltbank immer noch als eines der größten Hindernisse für die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung. Weltweit würden etwa eine Billion Dollar Bestechungsgelder bezahlt, rechnen die Autoren vor.“

"Bessere Regierungsführung" ist möglich
Die Tageszeitung (Deutschland), 12 July 2007

In einigen der ärmsten Länder der Welt verbessert sich die Qualität der Regierungsführung, die sogenannte Good Governance, außergewöhnlich schnell. Zu diesem Schluss kommt die Weltbank in einem am Dienstag in den USA veröffentlichten Bericht. ‚Manche Länder, einschließlich einige der ärmsten in Afrika, haben sich zu Fortschritten entschlossen und zeigen der Welt, dass es möglich ist, in relativ kurzer Zeit erhebliche Verbesserungen zu erreichen’, sagte Verfasser Daniel Kaufmann, Direktor für ‚Global Governance’ am Weltbankinstitut WBI. ...

Der Bericht wendet sich gegen drei gängige Irrtümer, die nach Meinung der Autoren in der entwicklungspolitischen Diskussion häufig vorkommen. Zum Ersten sei nicht wahr, dass die Qualität von Regierungshandeln nur subjektiv messbar ist. Zum Zweiten sei falsch, dass reiche Länder einheitlich besser regiert würden als arme. Zum Dritten sei falsch, dass große Fortschritte in kurzer Zeit unmöglich seien.“

Daniel Kaufmann, co-autore del rapporto, sostiene tuttavia che “mentre da molte zone dell'Africa arrivano novità di miglioramento, in media non esistono prove che la gestione delle amministrazioni nel mondo sia migliorata negli ultimi anni. Il panorama è eterogeneo. Alcuni paesi, compresi alcuni fra i più poveri dell'Africa, portano avanti delle politiche per limitare la corruzione e migliorare l'apparato statale. Altri sono fermi o addirittura peggiorano, come la Costa d'Avorio e lo Zimbabwe”.

Cerca, ma non trova, maggior conforto in uno snello libretto della Banca Mondiale Governance Matters Governance Indicators for 1996-200. E’ il World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 4280 curato da tra esperti dell’istituto Daniel Kaufmann, Aart Kraay e Massimo Mastruzzi . Lo studio calcola i Worldwide Governance Indicatore per 212 Paese nell’arco di tempo 1996 – 2006 . Lo irrita non poco il fatto che la Slovenia, il Cile, il Botswana, l’ Estonia, Uruguay, la Repubblica Cèca, la Latvia, la Lituania, e la Costa Rica superano in classica l’Italian in terminiu di “governance”. E’ importante – pensa- che il nostro rappresentate in Banca Mondiale insista perché gli indicatori di stabilirà politica contino meno negli indici aggregati di “governance”.

Cerca, ma non trova, maggior conforto in uno snello libretto della Banca Mondiale, Governance Matters Governance Indicators for 1996-200. È il World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 4280 curato da tra esperti dell'istituto Daniel Kaufmann, Aart Kraay e Massimo Mastruzzi . Lo studio calcola i Worldwide Governance Indicators per 212 paese nell'arco di tempo 1996-2006 . Lo irrita non poco il fatto che la Slovenia, il Cile, il Botswana, l'Estonia, l'Uruguay, la Repubblica Ceca, la Latvia, la Lituania e il Costa Rica superano in classifica l'Italia in termini di governance. È importante, pensa, che il nostro rappresentante in Banca Mondiale insista perché gli indicatori di stabilità politica contino meno negli indici aggregati di governance.

Alitalia, una storia vecchia quindici anni
Mercati Finanziari (Italia), 20 July 2007

La situazione finanziaria dell'Alitalia (senza un cavaliere bianco che se ne prenda carico per risanarla, effettuando le riorganizzazioni necessarie, e rilanciarla) non è in linea non tanto con le regole del Trattato di Maastricht e decisioni successive (si può sempre sperare in giudici fantozzianamente dal cuore tenero) quanto con la lex mercatoria (le prassi delle transazioni internazionali, molto più cogenti delle regole scritte) che in dieci anni circa di unione monetaria si è affermata e consolidata nell'area dell'euro. E' illusorio sperare in un Samaritano finanziario (ossia in una o più banche che corrano al salvataggio) : William Bernstein nell'ultimo fascicolo del Financial Analysts Journal ) rileva come la lex mercatoria si applichi anche al settore dei servizi finanziari. Infine, Daniel Kaufmann , Aart Kraay e Massimo Mastruzzi in un esame degli indicatori di governance nel 1996-2006 per 212 Paesi (World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 4280, disponibile in Europa in settembre in versione cartacea) mostrano come la non osservanza della lex mercatoria indica sulla credibilità non solo delle aziende ma anche dei Governi.

Le capacità di governare il proprio Paese con correttezza e trasparenza, di far rispettare la legge e di combattere la corruzione sono in aumento in una serie di angoli insospettati del pianeta quali il continente africano e alcune economie emergenti dell'Europa dell'Est. Ma per l'Italia - sia pure in termini assoluti una delle 45 nazioni più avanzate a livello mondiale nella classifica stilata dalla Banca Mondiale (BM) - la situazione tra il 1996 ed il 2006 è peggiorata.

Общая сумма взяток во всем мире за 2006 г оценивается в 1 млрд долл - доклад Всемирного банка
ВАШИНГТОН, 10 июля. /ПРАЙМ-ТАСС/. Общая сумма взяток во всем мире за 2006 г оценивается в 1

млрд долл. Такие цифры приводят авторы доклада Всемирного банка "Показатели эффективности
государственного управления в странах мира за 1996-2006 годы", обнародованного сегодня в
американской столице.

Не справились с управлением
Эффективность государственных институтов в России на уровне беднейших африканских стран
РОМАН ДОБРОХОТОВ

По нескольким сотням экономических, социальных и политических переменных исследователи
выработали 6 сводных показателей. Практически по каждому из них Россия находится в последних
десятках и продолжает опускаться. Так, по показателю «подотчетность властей» наша страна
опустилась с 40 баллами из 100 в 2004 году до 24 в 2006-м. За тот же период резко ухудшились
эффективность государственных институтов (с 46,4 балла до 37,9) и качество госрегулирования
(с 36 до 33). До крайне низкого уровня (19 баллов) опустился показатель «верховенство
закона». Для сравнения: в середине 1990-х годов он составлял 24 балла, и справедливо
считалось, что это очень мало. Показатель эффективности борьбы с коррупцией, росший до 2003
года, опять покатился вниз и сейчас составляет 25,7 балла.

Доклад ВБ: за 2006 год взяточники получили 1 триллион долларов
10.07.2007

В 1 трлн долларов оценивается общая сумма взяток во всем мире за 2006 год. Такие цифры
приводят авторы доклада Всемирного банка "Показатели эффективности государственного
управления в странах мира за 1996-2006 годы", обнародованного сегодня в американской
столице.

Годовая сумма взяток в мире составляет $1 трлн
Версия для печати, 10 июля 2007, 21:47

Согласно данным доклада Всемирного банка «Показатели эффективности государственного
управления в странах мира за 1996-2006 годы», общая сумма взяток во всем мире за 2006 год оценивается в 1 трлн долларов.

В аналитическом исследовании, суммирующем данные из 212 стран и территорий мира по
нескольким сотням экономических, социальных и политических параметров, выработаны 6 сводных
показателей, таких как «подотчетность правительства», «политическая стабильность»,
«эффективность работы правительства», «качество законодательства в области регулирования»,
«верховенство закона» и «борьба с коррупцией». В докладе констатируется значительный
прогресс по предложенным показателям в ряде развивающихся стран - Алжире, Индонезии,
Либерии, Сьерра-Леоне, а также Сербии. А такие государства как Латвия, Литва, Словения,
Чехия и Эстония по основным параметрам качества госуправления опередили такие промышленно
развитые страны, как Греция и Италия.

Сумма взяток оказалась мировой константой
Правда, 11.07.2007

Общая сумма взяток во всем мире за 2006 год оценивается в один триллион долларов. Об этом
говорится в докладе Всемирного банка «Показатели эффективности государственного управления в
странах мира за 1996-2006 годы», обнародованного в Вашингтоне.
ВБ изучил ситуацию в 212 странах по 5 сводным показателям, касающимся эффективности
государственного управления. Хотя за последние 10 лет средние показатели коррумпированности
и качества управления не улучшились, в пресс-релизе по докладу представители ВБ выражают
надежду, что произошедшие изменения повлияют на развитие стран в долгосрочной перспективе.
Тем не менее, мировая сумма взяток практически не меняется уже несколько лет, и даже
сопоставима с уровнем доходов мировой преступности. Так, еще в 2004 году в отчете
Transparency International общий объем взяток оценивался в тот же $1 трлн., а по данным
Управления по контролю над наркотиками и предупреждению преступности ООН, это составляет
половину дохода преступных группировок по всему миру.

Всемирный банк не заметил улучшения качества госуправления в России
11 июля 2007| Прочие кредиты

Всемирный банк проанализировал эффективность управления государством в 212 странах мира. С
1996 по 2006 год она существенно выросла в Кении, Руанде, Алжире и Таджикистане, упала - в
Белоруссии, Боливии и Кот-д`Ивуаре. В России, следует из доклада банка, прогресса не было -
она по-прежнему соседствует с африканскими странами и такими одиозными режимами, как
Венесуэла и Иран.

Основной вывод опубликованного 10 июля Всемирным банком доклада "Качество управления имеет
значение: показатели эффективности госуправления в мире за 1996-2006 годы" - в среднем
качество госуправления за последнее десятилетие почти не изменилось. О России говорится как
о стране, где качество госуправления за последние десять лет фактически не изменилось.
Впрочем, оно осталось неизменным и в Италии, во Вьетнаме, в Бразилии, Индии и Китае.

Всемирный Банк оценил качество госуправления в 212 странах: Россия рядом с Зимбабве
July 11, 2007

Доклад называется "Качество управления имеет значение: Показатели эффективности
государственного управления в странах мира за 1996-2006 годы". Рейтинг составлен на основе
данных из 33 разных источников, отражающих мнения тысяч экспертов бизнес-структур,
неправительственных и государственных организаций.

По этим данным, показатели качества государственного управления в мире за прошедшее
десятилетие улучшились незначительно. В ряде стран отмечаются перемены к лучшему, но
примерно в таком же количестве стран (в Зимбабве, Кот Д’Ивуар, Белоруссии и Венесуэле)
ситуация ухудшилась. Во многих других странах не произошло существенных изменений ни в ту,
ни в другую сторону.

Washington Profile
July 13, 2007
Качество госуправления

Всемирный Банк\World Bank опубликовал доклад о качестве
государственного управления в государствах мира. Оценивалась ситуация в 212 странах и
территориях, в том числе и в государствах бывшего СССР.

Доклад называется "Качество Управления Имеет Значение: Показатели Эффективности
Государственного Управления в Странах Мира за 1996–2006 Годы"\Governance Matters, 2007:
Worldwide Governance Indicators 1996-2006. Рейтинг составлен на основе данных из 33 разных
источников, отражающих мнения тысяч экспертов бизнес-структур, неправительственных и
государственных организаций.

Качество госуправленияВсемирный Банк\World Bank опубликовал доклад о качестве
государственного управления в государствах мира. Оценивалась ситуация в 212 странах и
территориях, в том числе и в государствах бывшего СССР.

Ниже среднего
Эксперт Online, 11 июля 2007, 14:07

По шкале, названной «подотчетность правительства», Россия получила 24,0 балла из 100,0
возможных, по «политической стабильности» — 23,6, по «эффективности работы правительства» —
37,9, по «качеству законодательства в области регулирования» — 33,7, по шкале «верховенство
закона» —19,0 и по «борьбе с коррупцией» — 24,3. Об этом сообщает ИТАР-ТАСС.

非洲國家反腐成效顯著
非洲國家反腐成效顯著 (China), 20 August 2007

（一）世界銀行報告指出，非洲國家過去10年來，在反腐工作上取得重大成績。有關報告乃是從媒體自由、政治穩定、法制以及控制腐敗等方面，對世界上212個國家政府，在1996年至2006年期間的表現進行評估。這份2007

年「治理是重要的：1996－2006全球治理指數」評估指出，非洲地區國家取得的進展最為顯著。

（二）報告總結認為，合法以及有效的政治威信，是消除貧困和提高國民生活水準的關鍵。該報告作者之一的世銀全球事務主任考夫曼（Daniel Kaufmann）指出，提高政府治理水準，對於更有效使用援助以及長期持續的發展

均具有關鍵意義；全球的貪污賄賂總額估計高達1兆美元，而腐敗的後果往往卻由全球最貧窮的10多億人口承受。

（三）肯尼亞、尼日及獅子山在2002年前曾飽受內戰之苦，但這些國家因為賦予人民選擇政府以及言論自由，因此獲得極大進步。報告也特別提到安哥拉、盧安達和獅子山在政治穩定方面有所改善。惟辛巴威以及委內瑞拉等國之政

世界銀行發表的最新調查報告顯示，新加坡政府在貪污管制、條例素質與政府效率上依舊有特優表現，取得近100百分位（ percentile）的優良成勣，為全球管理最佳的商業環境之一。　　由世界銀行進行的2007年環球治理指標調查，根據六個領域來衡量世界各國的治理環境。它們分別是：政府效率、監管素質、法律、貪污管制、言論和問責，以及政治穩定。
言論問責領域表現不理想
新加坡在其中5個領域中表現都在95百分位或以上，但在言論和問責的評分卻未盡理想，只取得47百分位，比前年的56百分位排名退步。過去數年，新加坡在這方面的排名一直介於45百分位至57百分位之間。
世界銀行環球治理主管考夫曼（Daniel Kaufmann）去年也發表相同的調查報告。他說，世界銀行特意不將各國進行明確排名，是因為排名不具有任何顯著意義。因此，世行選擇以百分位的呈現法，將各國表現歸類於6個百分位組別（0-10、10-25、25-50、50-75、75-90 、90- 100）。所謂95百分位，意指有5％的國家排在新加坡之上。

عربي

حسب البنك العالمي

الرشوة النقطة السوداء الرئيسية في الاقتصاد الجزائري

ركز التقرير السنوي الصادر عن البنك العالمي حول المؤشرات العالمية لإدارة الحكم لسنة 2007 ما بين 1996 و2006

حول الحالة الجزائرية على تأثير عامل الرشوة وعدم التحكم فيها كعامل سلبي أساسي خلال الفترة المدروسة، فقد ظل مؤشر التحكم في الرشوة متواضعا بالنسبة للجزائر خلال العشرية الماضية، فيما سجل مؤشر فعالية الحكومة في تطبيق الإصلاحات والبرامج تراجعا·

اعتمد تقرير إدارة أو تسيير الحكم لسنة 2007 الصادر أمس الأول بواشنطن على أكثـر من 30 مصدرا و30 مجموعة دولية وإقليمية متخصصة حيث أضيف إلى هذه الهيئات هذه السنة مركز غالوب الدولي المتخصص في عمليات سبر الآراء، إلى جانب البنك الإفريقي للتنمية·

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