‘RP still among most corrupt’

By Cai U. Ordinario
Reporter
Business Mirror
June 25, 2008


THE Philippines is still among the world’s most corrupt and politically unstable countries in the world, according to the latest report released by the World Bank (WB).

The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) project of the Washington-based lender showed that the country scored poorly, particularly in political stability and absence of violence and control of corruption.

“The WGI authors defined governance as the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised. This includes the process by which governments are selected, monitored and replaced; the capacity of the government to effectively formulate and implement sound policies; and the respect of citizens and the state for the institutions that govern economic and social interactions among them,” the WGI stated in a report brief.

In the WGI, the country’s percentile ranks for political stability and absence of violence was pegged at 10, while in control of corruption, the Philippines ’ percentile rank was at 22.

The WGI said Hong Kong got a percentile ranking of 86 in political stability and 92 in control of corruption, while Singapore had a percentile ranking of 90 in political stability and 96 in control of corruption.

Worldwide, Iceland got a percentile ranking of 100 for political stability and control of corruption. Finland also got a percentile ranking of 100 in control of corruption.



Country scores in the WGI are reported as percentile ranks, with higher values indicating better governance ratings. Percentile ranks indicate the percentage of countries worldwide that score below each country.

For example, a country with a percentile rank of 70 has 70 percent of countries scoring worse than it and 30 percent of countries scoring better.

The indicators are just two of the six-indicator WGI, which also includes voice and accountability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality and rule of law—where the country also did poorly.

In terms of voice and accountability, the Philippines ’ percentile rank was pegged at 43, government effectiveness, 56; regulatory quality, 50; and rule of law, 34.

Among the country’s neighbours in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Singapore received high percentile rankings for control of corruption and political stability.

The WGI also noted that in terms of political stability and absence of violence, the Philippines ’ index score, the basis for percentile rankings, worsened to negative 1.38 in 2007 from negative 0.15 in 1998.

The voice and accountability indicator measured the extent to which citizens are able to participate in selecting their government, as well as freedom of expression, freedom of association and a free media.

In terms of political stability and absence of violence/terrorism, this indicator measures the likelihood that the government will be destabilized by unconstitutional or violent means, including terrorism.

Government effectiveness, meanwhile, measures the quality of public services, the capacity of the civil service and its independence from political pressures, and the quality of policy formulation.

In regulatory quality, this indicator measures the ability of the government to provide sound policies and regulations that enable and promote private-sector development.

On the other hand, rule of law measures the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, including the quality of contract enforcement and property rights, the police and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence.

The last indicator, control of corruption, measures the extent to which public power is exercised for private gain, including both petty and grand forms of corruption, as well as “capture” of the state by elites and private interests.

The WGI covers studies made by experts in more than 200 countries and territories between 1996 and 2007. They organize and synthesize data reflecting the views of thousands of stakeholders worldwide, including respondents to household and firm surveys, and experts from non-government organizations, public-sector agencies and providers of commercial business information.

The latest update of the WGI is based on 35 data sources from 32 organizations around the world. The WGI is considered as one of the largest compilations of cross-country data on governance that is publicly available.