India among the most corrupt nations surveyed

India finds itself bracketed with countries like Philippines and Cambodia rated as the fourth most corrupt nation among 16 countries of the Asia Pacific region surveyed by leading Hong Kongbased business consultancy firm PERC The Political amp Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd PERC rated India at 867 on a scale of zero to 10 with the high end being the worst case of corruption scenario and ahead of the Philippines 89 points Indonesia 925 points and Cambodia 927 points Among the 16 countries reviewed in its latest report Thailand was rated at 11 with a scale of 755 followed by China 793 and Vietnam 83 Comparatively Singapore was given a clean sheet with a score of 037 followed by Hong Kong 110 Australia 139 Japan 190 and USA 239 putting them in the top five In India according to the report civil and other locallevel political leaders were found more corrupt than the nationallevel political leaders with the former given a score of 925 and the latter slightly better at 897 Indian civil servants at the city level too were rated at 818 worst than the civil servants at the national level 776 The issue of corruption has grown and overshadowed the second term in office of the Congressled coalition headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said PERC in its Asian Intelligence report on Asian business and politics The government has been wracked by a series of scandals involving the sale of telecom licenses preparations for the Commonwealth Games a land scam involving high level military officers and improper property loans made by stateowned financial institutions it pointed out Though investigations were underway to be followed by court trials Indians were still questioning whether or not the prime minister has the political muscle to fight graft and whether the actions now being taken were more for show than proof that the government was really cracking down on business practices that were common but corrupt it said Prime Minister Singh has been put in such a defensive position that most of his recent statements have been to stress how he has not personally been involved with corruption even though it appears that almost everyone around him was observed PERC This point is underscored by a recent WikiLeaks report that the ruling Congress Party paid off parliamentarians back in 2008 to pass the USIndia civil nuclear deal it said The report also noted that the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry was worried that the problem of corruption and the way it was being treated in the media could seriously hurt Indias international image and scare away potential investors It takes two to tango and the level of corruption in the public sector would not be possible if there were not plenty of private businessmen willing to pay bribes and work the political system said PERC