http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2005

This link above leads to a map and graph of Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index.

On a scale of 10, the best perception (least corrupt) to 1, (the most corrupt), Iceland is at 9.7. The worst is Chad at 1.7. The U. S. is 17th from the top at 7.6. I wish were in the top ten. Still, it gives us a motto:

"The United States of America: Not as Bad as Chad."

Below are Ricardo Yepez’ comments followed by my comments on a lecture by Professor Peter Eigen, founder of Transparency International for the Houston Journal of International Law by the University of Houston School of Law, April 12, 2006.

From Ricardo: Prof. Peter Eigin’s new focus is the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (http://www.eitransparency.org). This is an exciting development because it really consists of two basic

principles which if followed, may lead to transparency not only of corruptive practices but also of reserves and other financial data.

The first principle is that of "publish what you pay" which requires companies to disclose how much money goes into source countries. The second principle is "publish what you receive" which requires

countries to publish how much money they are getting for their oil and minerals.

Prof. Eigen has made tremendous progress in a short time with EITI and for example you can now find Nigeria's audit report online. That’s pretty amazing for a country which, a few years ago, refused to

disclose much in the way of financial data. Sadly, the U.S. is not yet a donor or participant country but the American Petroleum Institute (API) is a leading organization in this effort.

From Alfred: I attended the latter part of Prof. Peter Eigen's presentation.  The lecture part that I heard was good. Still, I question the context. I was surrounded by law students, law professors and suits from oil companies. Transparency International is supported by large corporations. The Professor admits that his organization has been criticized because they cooperate with corporations, in an effort to change things. Great. Okay.

But the part I found most interesting was at the very end, when he told his personal story. Professor Eigen was working in the legal department at the World Bank in Germany.

There were two sections that reviewed financing of major development projects in East Africa. He was involved with the donor section. I missed the name of the other section. His donor section would nix numerous dams and highway projects as unnecessary and counter productive. Yet, when they came for review by that other section, those white elephants would be approved with no opposition and ultimately funded.

What was happening here? Possibly, poor ministers in third world countries are being paid by large supply companies in Germany, France and other European countries to allow these boondoggle projects to go

through. Then the supply companies might have pressured the World Bank to approve the projects.

Prof. Eigen asked his superiors about starting a section of the World Bank to review, investigate, and expose corruption, not in an aggressive way but in a corporate/co-operative way, maybe just shrinking it on future projects. His bosses said no, not on World Bank time. He said okay. Would you mind if I set up a volunteer group that would operate outside of the Bank on his own time after or outside of work. His bosses responded absolutely not and that his actions were embarrassing the hard working people of the poor developing countries and if he continued with his activities he'd be fired.

I don't think he was fired. I don't think he resigned immediately, but ultimately he did resign from the World Bank. He set up a little, one man non-profit organization, Transparency International, http://www.transparency.org/ . Over time a large number of for-profit companies started donating to his organization and now they have 60 full time staff.

The situation which I had wanted him to address was the degree to which corruption was causing Nigeria to have disruptions of oil exports. It's nice to point to rebels and terrorists but ultimately its corruption, property theft, and basic lack of support for human rights by unelected government officials that feeds support for rebels and terrorists. The government of Nigeria has little support from the local population when those terrorists hijack oil, destroy production facilities, or kidnap oil company employees. According to other people who were there during the early part of the lecture, Nigeria was mentioned but this situation

was not directly addressed.

Still, it gives me hope that even corporations and establishment people, the suits, can see the vital need to reduce or eliminate corruption. And not just pay the term, honesty, lip service or use the accusation of corruption as a tool to selectively threaten small nations with denial of aid unless they do as the wealthy nations demand, as Prof. Dr. Eigen mentioned. Honesty and the reduction of corruption are in everyone's long term economic interests.