The famously upright Norwegians might feel a touch aggrieved, in a mild Scandinavian kind of way, that they rank slightly lower than the other Nordic nations in Transparency International's regular survey on perceptions of public corruption across the world, released yesterday. But our friends in Oslo can comfort themselves with the thought that, while they are marginally less corruption-free than some of their northern European neighbours, they do spectacularly well compared with other countries whose national income is substantially boosted by oil.
Nigeria, Angola, Venezuela, Ecuador, Russia: the survey's lower ranks are dominated by economies that pump oil but do little else.
Nigeria, Angola, Venezuela, Ecuador, Russia: the survey's lower ranks are dominated by economies that pump oil but do little else.
What a surprise. Corrpution in oil producing countries.
This Financial Times article suggests that rich oil-dependent countries have some responsibility to curtail the corruption.
It is not enough, as the US administration has done in the oil sector - ironically, in view of the US's good record overall in prosecuting American companies that pay bribes overseas - to point the finger at governments of developing countries and urge them to improve. Bribery requires payers as well as receivers.
Gee, what a novel idea.
...and hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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