The World Bank, in its recently-released "Governance Matters 2006" report, gave the country a lower ranking in its control of corruption benchmark, falling from 50.5% in 1998 to 37.4% in 2005.

BY IBON FOUNDATION
Posted by Bulatlat

The World Bank, in its recently-released "Governance Matters 2006" report, gave the country a lower ranking in its control of corruption benchmark, falling from 50.5% in 1998 to 37.4% in 2005.

The declining rank indicated that the ability of the Philippines to improve governance and curb corruption has declined based on the index for control of corruption, defined as the extent to which public power is exercised for private gain, including petty and grand forms of corruption and the "capture" of the state by elite and private interests.

Although the lower ranking is welcome for pointing out the worsening corruption situation in the country, it should also be an occasion to deepen the debate on the corruption issue and how to address it, said IBON research director Antonio Tujan.

For instance, he said that the World Bank's definition of corruption over-emphasizes government accountability while failing to acknowledge that privatization, liberalization, and deregulation policies promoted by multilateral organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank itself create "opportunities" for corruption by local agents. "These policies breed corruption, and if these cases are taken into account, we will find that corruption in the Philippines is even much worse than what the World Bank reported," said Tujan.

Under the World Bank framework, the Arroyo administration's anti-corruption efforts thus focuses only on administrative reforms such as lifestyle checks and reinforcing the Ombudsman, and not on strategies that address the most visible forms of grand corruption, for example, large government contracts and concessions.

Tujan cited the fiasco surrounding the privatization of the Masinloc coal-fired power plant, which was marred by graft and corruption involving officials in charge of the privatization of state-owned National Power Corporation (Napocor). "The privatization of public services and utilities has been pushed by creditors like the IMF and World Bank in such a way as to allow impunity and even legality to the dubious dealings of multinational firms and large-scale national businesses," he said.

Thus, any effective anti-corruption strategy must take into account the impact of IMF-World Bank structural adjustment policies on governance and corruption, Tujan said. IBON Foundation/posted by Bulatlat

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