On January 30, 2024, the agency International Transparency published on annual report on the perception of transparency and corruption in various countries around the world. This index, also called CPI (English acronym for Corruption Perception Index), it's a statistical ranking that analyzes levels of corruption in the public sector. Italy is well placed for the year 2023. On a scale where “100” marks the highest level of corruption and “0” the lowest, our country ranks in 17th place in Europe and 42nd out of 180 nations examinedwith a score of 56.
A positive result which records the substantial stability of our country compared to 2022, acquisition 3 points more than in 2020 e a clear improvement compared to the global average, past and current. All this in a historical moment marked by conflict and economic instability, which could lead public opinion to believe that controls on corruption are weaker. The data reveals the opposite.
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The growing curve
The 2023 report, in addition to objective data from each country, this year shows a summary of the trend of the last ten years. Also in this case the ranking indicates Italy as one of the busiest nations on the fight against corruption. 80% of the world's populationin fact, to this day lives in countries with a score below the global average. Italy, on the other hand, is taking a leap forward 14 more points compared to 2012.
It is not something that should be taken for granted.
“At a time when wars and other international conflicts are escalating, (…) some might think that corruption is tolerable and that controls can be relaxed, but they are wrong. Corruption harms the economy and undermines the integrity of people, at all times and in all contexts. Politicians and governments must keep issues of transparency and the fight against corruption at the top of their agenda. ».
Thus comments Michele Calleri, president of Transparency International Italyaccording to which the positive result of our country is result of regulatory measures regarding denunciation (an employee's reports of wrongdoing in the company where he or she works) e public procurement policies adopted in Italy in recent years.
Room for improvement
Even though Italy is part of the small circle of 28 countries where transparency levels have increased, there is still a long way to go. Just take a look at the overall scores:
Source: transparency.org
An interesting fact is the fact that the best results find themselves once again in countries where the perception of transparency and corruption results in greater trust in institutions and a general feeling of well-being by the population. Denmark is at the top for the sixth time in a row, Finland has been confirmed for years as the happiest nation according to Esquire. It is not at all surprising that at the bottom of the rankings are countries in which political and economic instability has negatively affected the population and their confidence.
Italy, although in a privileged position compared to these countries, has a significant gap to close compared to the top ranked countries. But its critical problems are precisely the solutions, as they suggest in unison. International Transparency and ANAC, the Italian anti-corruption body:
- strengthen justice, in terms of resources and independence, a system where crimes often go unpunished encourages new crimes;
- create a control system bureaucratically streamlined and therefore faster to intercept and prosecute incidents of corruption;
- be transparent to the population, giving them the opportunity to access each phase of the procurement procedures.
