US Study Ranks Bulgaria Second on Strongest Anti-Corruption Index

Bulgaria is among the countries with the strongest index in the fight against corruption, according to the latest report of the US Global Integrity organization, released Wednesday. Photo by Global Integrity

Bulgaria is among the countries with the strongest index in the fight against corruption, according to the latest report of the US Global Integrity organization, released Wednesday.

With a "strong" index of 87 (out of 100) Bulgaria ranks second behind Poland among the 57 countries included in the study, followed by Hungary and Japan. The report includes the first-ever assessments of Iraq and Somalia.

The Index assesses the existence, effectiveness, and citizen access to key anti-corruption mechanisms at the national level in a country. The authors point out that it does not measure corruption per se or perceptions of corruption, nor does it measure governance "outputs" - statistics of service delivery, crime, or socio-economic development. Instead, the Index is an entry point for understanding the anti-corruption and good governance safeguards in place in a country that should ideally prevent, deter, or punish corruption.

Data from the 2008 Global Integrity Report reveals that unregulated money in politics continues to be greatest corruption threat globally. The study uses Bulgaria as an example, explaining that "legal vagueness" around the enforcement of party financing regulations led to a June 2008 scandal where European Union funds were misappropriated to the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the incumbent president's reelection campaign.

"While the overall anti-corruption architecture for Bulgaria appears strong, the country faces its greatest challenges in the fields of political financing and whistle blowing. A national Ombudsman and smaller institutional mechanisms exist for addressing citizen and civil servant corruption concerns, but the lack of a whistle-blowing culture, or protection measures to bolster that culture, make these agencies largely ineffective. The newly created State Agency for National Security has a mandate to conduct independent investigations into organized crime, but the political nature of its recent activity has "provoked controversy and serious doubts about its effectiveness," the report concludes

The 2008 Grand Corruption Watch List includes: Angola, Belarus, Cambodia, China, Georgia, Iraq, Montenegro, Morocco, Nicaragua, Serbia, Somalia, the West Bank, and Yemen.