Brazil still seen among most corrupt countries

Brazil occupies the 106th position in the ranking on perceived corruption compiled by NGO Transparency International—a list including 180 countries. In 2018, Brazil ranked 105th, after sliding nine positions that year. The score was kept at 35 points—on a scale from zero to 100—in 2019. The closer a nation is to 100, the less corrupt the country is seen as.

The survey is based on research conducted by 12 internationally renowned institutions—like the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and Germany’s Bertelsmann Stiftung.

The highest-ranking countries were New Zealand and Denmark, both sharing first place, with 87 points. Albania, Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Macedonia, and Mongolia tied with Brazil with 35. The figures were published in São Paulo today (23).

In the view of Transparency International’s research coordinator Guilherme France, Brazil’s reduction in the ranking is linked to setbacks sustained last year. “Even though we advocate reforms and improvements, what we had last year was a series of attacks on already established institutions, laws already in effect, being observed for years,” he pointed out.

Among the problems he mentioned was the decision made in July 2019 by Supreme Court Chief Justice Dias Toffoli to suspend probes into cases based on fiscal data relayed by the Council for the Control of Financial Activities (COAF). “The very decision to halt the activities at COAF and the sharing of financial information is unprecedented if we take into account that the money laundering law dates to 1999. These are data that had been shared regularly since 1999,” he went on to note.

The onslaught on journalism is also reported among the factors undermining the strides made in the fight against corruption in Brazil, France said.