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  • In January 2016, Transparency International released its annual Corruption Index. This

  • data ranks nearly every country’s perceived corruption based on levels of bribery, illegitimate

  • government spending and lack of anti-corruption measures. Year after year, many of the same

  • countries are at the bottom of the list. So which countries take up these spots? And why

  • are they so corrupt?

  • Well, as of the end of 2015, the three most corrupt countries are Afghanistan, Somalia

  • and North Korea. Much of Afghanistan’s prevailing corruption is linked to misuse of aid money

  • given to the country from international donors. The Afghan government pledged to combat this

  • issue in 2012, however little progress has been made, as public officials benefit the

  • most from this type of corruption. Somalia suffers from a similar problem. A report by

  • the World Bank showed that roughly $130 million dollars of donor funds to the federal government

  • had gone missing over just two years. What’s more, Somalia’s private enterprises pay

  • little or no taxes to the state, but instead pay optional fees to government officials

  • who support their company’s interests. By contrast, bribes in North Korea are mostly

  • paid by citizens. For example, North Koreans who are looking for a better job must pay

  • a public official to assign them to one, as all citizens are selected for jobs by the government.

  • What these three and most corrupt countries have in common is armed conflict and political

  • oppression, which are environments where public sector corruption particularly thrive.

  • The country that took the biggest tumble was Brazil, which dropped seven positions in just

  • one year. This is due in part to the Petrobras scandal, in which Brazilian politicians allegedly

  • took millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for awarding public contracts. The incident

  • slowed investments in energy and construction, costing tens of thousands of Brazilians to

  • lose their jobs. However Brazil could see a turnaround in 2016, as mass public protests

  • have pressured the government to introduce anti-corruption legislation.

  • In contrast, northern Europe saw the least corruption in 2015, with Denmark, Finland

  • and Sweden at the top of the list. Scandinavian countries repeatedly rank well in corruption

  • studies, mainly because they allow public access to the government’s budget information,

  • so citizens can see exactly where public money comes from and how it’s spent. These countries

  • also have high levels of press freedom and a judicial system that does not base decisions

  • on a person’s income.

  • Still, no country is completely free of corruption. In fact, even the highest ranking countries

  • have been linked to unlawful deals outside their borders. The best example of this is

  • TeliaSonera, a company partially owned by the Swedish state, which allegedly paid millions

  • of dollars in bribes to Uzbekistan in order to secure business there. However incidents

  • like this are not factored into the corruption index, because it only reflects government

  • corruption within a country’s borders - not corruption overseas or in the private sector.

  • But despite alleged corruption in supposedly un-corrupt countries, more countries are moving

  • up the index than are moving down. According to the world bank, one of the best ways to

  • combat corruption is to create policies that thoroughly investigate and report government

  • spending. Still, more than 6 billion people live under corrupt governments. And until

  • more countries adopt similar policies, that number is likely to increase.

  • If you want a closer look at corruption issues in individual countries, like Brazil, check

  • out our corruption playlist. Thanks for watching Test Tube News, don’t forget to like and

  • subscribe for new videos every day.

In January 2016, Transparency International released its annual Corruption Index. This

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