Dec 12 2008
the state of corruption
So Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested a day before his 52nd birthday on various charges of corruption. Now I’m wondering, is there something in the water?, because Blago is not the first Illinois governor to be brought up on such charges.
- Way back when, while serving as governor between 1921 to 1929, Lennington Small was indicted embezzling $600,000 and running a money-laundering scheme when he was state treasurer. He was acquitted, but it seems four jurors later got state jobs, raising suspicions of jury tampering.
- William Stratton, who was governor from 1953 to 1961 was indicted on charges relating to the abuse and spending of campaign fund contributions. He too was acquitted in 1965.
- Then there was Otto Kerner, Jr. who served as governor from 1961 to 1968. He was convicted on counts of bribery, conspiracy, perjury and related charges… but this was after his time as governor, when he became a federal judge.
- Next was Dan Walker, governor from 1973 to 1977. He was convicted in 1987 and served 17 months for obtaining illegal loans used to finance a chain of quick oil change franchises for personal gain.
- And most people may have heard of George Ryan who was governor from 1993 to 2003. In 2006 he was convicted of political corruption, using his office as governor (and earlier as secretary of state) to enrich himself and his friends at taxpayer expense. He recently started his 6 1/2 year sentence. You may have heard about an Illinois senator urging President Bush to commute this sentence before Bush bows out in January?
 How Ill is Illinois? (small) Originally uploaded by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com |
Then there’s Blago. I’m not taking bets on his guilt or innocence …!
I wonder how all this will impact USA’s standing in next year’s edition of the Corruption Perception Index. Issued annually by Transparency International, the CPI ranks countries according to the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians.
This table shows the ranking of the three countries that are the primary concern of this blog, from 2005 - 2008:
| Country | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 |
| Malaysia | 47 | 43 | 44 | 39 |
| Switzerland | 5 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| USA | 18 | 20 | 20 | 17 |
| (total countries) | (180) | (179) | (163) | (158) |
The USA seems to hover around the 20th rung. Like I said, I wonder where it will be in the next iteration of this index…
Sadly, Malaysia seems to be slipping…
Unsurprisingly, Switzerland scores consistently in the top 10, usually at number 7, now up to number 5!
Sources:
- STLtoday - Past Illinois officials who got in trouble with the law
- Transparency International CPI 2008 , 2007 , 2006 , 2005
CK> according to TI’s CPI FAQ, The CPI is “… a composite index, a poll of polls, drawing on corruption-related data from expert and business surveys carried out by a variety of independent and reputable institutions…”. It’s also important to note that the “P” stands for perception… so if this Blago thing is still in everyone’s minds when the next round of data is collected, I would expect a worse placing for the US.
Dave2> LoL congrats!
Hoo Don> just click on the “2008″ and other years at the bottom, where I cite my source - that takes you to the most recent CPI. I “Ctrl+f” for Thailand, and looks like it’s at 80th place for 2008… but it was 59th in 2005! Yikes. I knew my neighbor was having troubles, but wow…
Windmill> it’s just kinda sad, that Pak Lah who was supposed to bring a change to the Malaysian government, didn’t. That Malaysia’s rank is falling during his tenure as Prime Minister isn’t a good sign…
Bas> I hadn’t heard about the refusal to do business with the federal bank thing,,, but yeah, the bottom line is a politician is a politician is a politician, and I don’t trust them.