TI SAYS CORRUPTION I CROATIA AT HIGH LEVEL

ZAGREB, Oct 26 (Hina) - An international organisation "Transparency International" (IT) placed Croatia among countries with a high degree of corruption in its report released Tuesday. On a list of 99 countries, Croatia ranks 74 with a 2.7 index of corruption. On a scale from 1 to 10 with the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), 1 indicates a high degree and 10 a low degree of corruption. The report was published in Croatia and 14 other countries in the world. The TI marked the least corruption in Denmark (index 10), the same as last year, followed by Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, Canada, Island, Singapore and The Netherlands. Countries with the highest degree of corruption are Cameroon (index 1.5), Nigeria, Indonesia and Azerbaijan. Corruption degree indexes are the result of strict scientific research and controls, but also the impression a country has internationally, and as such are not strictly accurate, initiator of a TI representation office in Zagreb, Josip Kregar, said. Gauging by the CPI, Croatia is succeeded, with better indexes, by Romania, Macedonia and Bulgaria (3.3), Slovakia (3.7), Poland 4.2), the Czech republic (4.6), Hungary (5.2) and Slovenia, placed 25th with an index of 6.0. Preceding Croatia, with a bigger degree of corruption are India and Columbia (2.9), Argentina (3.0), and Nicaragua (3.1). Croatia is directly followed by the Cote d'Ivoire, Moldova, Ukraine, Venezuela and Vietnam with a 2.6 index. Croatia's position on the TI list, whose definition of corruption is the misuse of public trust or authority for personal gain, cannot be held as a completely clear reflection of all circumstances, but should be regarded in relation to other countries, Kregar said. He stressed that despite the fact that TI research was based on 17 different research projects by institutions fro ten countries and Gallup International which questioned 34,000 business people, risk analysts and the general public, it is a measurement of how a country is perceived internationally, which does not result in completely accurate measurements. However, he said, this is to date the best and most objective aggregated method of measuring corruption in countries. In this year's report, TI introduced a new index for measuring corruption - the Bribe Payers Perception Index (BPI) which ranks countries whose companies are perceived as using bribes in transactions abroad. The list of 19 countries registering a great economic expansion and export, according to the degree of corruption of companies in business transactions abroad, is led by China, South Korea, Taiwan, Italy, Malaysia, Japan and France. Apparently the least degree of corruption in business transactions with other countries are Sweden, Australia and Canada. Two countries which have so far been the biggest investors into Croatian economy, Germany and the United States, are in the middle of the list. Stressing corruption decreased the degree of economic growth and foreign investments and increased a country's debts and that the degree of poverty was most connected with corruption, Kregar said corruption was a global phenomenon which can only be resolved by general measures. This is the reason for the TI, along with the Croatian Employers' Association, having forwarded to the Croatian Government in April a programme for the prevention of corruption in Croatia, to which the Government has not replied, Kregar said. He announced the establishment of a Transparency International Office in Croatia and three round-table conferences focusing on the prevention of corruption. (hina) lml jn