Greece dropped eight places in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, falling eight positions to 67th from 59th in 2017.
The annual report, made public on Tuesday, draws on surveys and expert assessments to measure public sector corruption gives a score from zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean) for 180 countries around the world. In its position at 67, Greece is ranked as having the same corruption levels as Senegal and Montenegro.
The results of the report are a blow to the leftist SYRIZA government that came to power four years ago calling for an end to corruption. However, instead of an improvement to the situation, the report indicates that corruption has worsened and that corruption is as commonplace and widespread in Greece as it ever was.
The implementation of severe austerity measures and structural reforms to offset these have been undertaken in Greece, however corruption has not been dealt with in the country. The report refers to a burdensome bureaucracy that saddles Greece, and cites a number of scandals in 2018 that undermined anti-corruption efforts.
The improper procurement of supplies, such as medicines, was given as an example by Transparency International, that pointed to accusations that former ministers and even prime ministers had been involved in wrongdoing. There were also concerns raised about military procurement, such as the bid to sell munitions to Saudi Arabia and the alleged misuse of funds benchmarked for refugees.
Another example, was the recent appointment of retired Supreme Court judge Vassiliki Thanou as head of the Hellenic Competition Commmission to oversee the enforcement of anti-trust legislation when she is also a close adviser to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
“The appointment ultimately challenges the independence of the institution,” Transparency International states, pointing to the conflict of interest in the role.
Concerns have also been raised also about military procurement issues, such as a scuttled bid to sell munitions to Saudi Arabia and the alleged misuse of EU funds earmarked for refugees and migrants.
“In the analysis of Transparency International for the region of Western Europe and the EU Greece is one of the countries being monitored,” said the president of Transparency International Greece, Anna Damaskinou.
The report revealed a link between corruption and the health of democracies.
“Full democracies score an average of 75 on the CPI; flawed democracies score an average of 49; hybrid regimes – which show elements of autocratic tendencies – score 35; autocratic regimes perform worst, with an average score of just 30 on the CPI. Exemplifying this trend, the CPI scores for Hungary and Turkey decreased by eight and nine points respectively over the last five years. At the same time, Turkey was downgraded from ‘partly free’ to ‘not free’, while Hungary registered its lowest score for political rights since the fall of communism in 1989. These ratings reflect the deterioration of rule of law and democratic institutions, as well as a rapidly shrinking space for civil society and independent media, in those countries,” Transparency International stated.
In the Asia Pacific region, New Zealand was at the top scorer of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), with 87 out of 100. It is followed by Singapore and Australia, with scores of 85 and 77 respectively.
Countries that topped the list were Denmark (88 points), and Finland, Sweden and Switzerland (tied at 85 points). On its part, Greece ranked between the two bottom scorers of Europe: Hungry (46) and Bulgaria (42).