Corruption and pandemic go hand in hand.

This is what emerges from Transparency International's annual report on the feeling of corruption in the world, published Thursday, January 28. 

"Not only have most countries made little progress in the fight against corruption, but more than two-thirds of the states studied have a score of less than 50 points," assure the authors of this report.

Transparency International's annual index is represented by a scale of 1 to 100 and the lower a country's score, the more it is perceived as corrupt from the perspective of international institutions and private sector actors.

This ranking compiles data relating to corruption from 13 institutions such as the World Bank, the World Economic Forum and Global Insight, an international economic forecasting firm.

Like a hurricane

And if 2020 has been a bad year for the fight against corruption, it is in large part because of the coronavirus.

"The Covid-19 is not only a health and economic crisis, but also a crisis in terms of corruption. And we have failed to tackle it," said Delia Ferreira Rubio, director of Transparency International . 

The pandemic feeds corruption, which pays it back.

"We have observed that the health crisis puts more pressure on institutions, which are thus less able to fight effectively against acts of corruption", summarizes Roberto Kukutschka, one of the authors of the 2020 Transparency International report, contacted by France 24. 

The logic is clear, according to him: States must focus their efforts to respond quickly to an emergency situation, which opens up opportunities for the corrupters to take advantage of the crisis.

"The institutions have less time to carry out the necessary controls to avoid these abuses", underlines Roberto Kukutschka.

It's the same catchphrase for every disaster or crisis.

In this sense, "the current pandemic falls into the same category as hurricanes or earthquakes in terms of the impact on corruption", confirms the specialist from Transparency International.

This is an area that has already been the subject of numerous studies, and one of them, published in 2014, concluded that disasters such as the passage of Hurricane Katrina in the United States in 2005 or the earthquake of 2011 in Japan had led to a sharp rise in corruption.

It even found that regions accustomed to natural disasters had a higher level of corruption in general.

They seem to act like corrupting magnets ...

But the current health crisis stands out because it is unprecedented in modern history.

Policy makers cannot therefore rely on action plans that have already proven their worth, as can be the case during an earthquake, for example.

This obligation to find the right solution in the face of a new threat distracts the authorities' attention even more, "which leaves more the field open to corruption," notes Roberto Kukutschka.

The most affected vulnerable countries

This corruption accelerating effect of Covid-19 was particularly striking in countries where the evil was already entrenched, note the authors of the report.

In South America, the American Center for International Justice Cyrus R. Vance found suspicion of corruption hanging over the award of government contracts for pandemic programs in 12 countries.

In Somalia, the lowest-rated country by Transparency International, four members of the government were found guilty in August of embezzling funds intended to finance the national anti-Covid-19 plan.

For these very vulnerable countries, the link between corruption and Covid-19 is a real vicious circle.

The pandemic favors certain abuses which, in return, amplify the effects of the health crisis.

In this context, "corruption kills", summarizes Nadège Buquet, general delegate of Transparency International in France, contacted by France 24. The health sector is, in fact, the one that is most affected by the increase in corruption, underlines the Transparency International report.

Access to care sometimes requires paying bribes.

For example, in Kenya a hospital forced patients to buy protective masks before they could get a consultation.

Some unscrupulous suppliers have sought to overcharge for medical equipment which can slow down their delivery to hospitals in need.

Under these conditions "corruption has become an additional obstacle in the fight against the virus", notes Roberto Kukutschka.

The impact in France "is real"

However, the countries best rated by Transparency International are not immune to the virus of corruption in times of health crisis.

France, for example, occupies an honorable 23rd place in the ranking of the NGO, which does not prevent "the impact of the health crisis on corruption from being real", affirms Nadège Buquet.

"We have, for example, seen the appearance of ill-intentioned intermediaries who sought to take advantage of the situation by diverting masks or sanitary equipment," she assures us. 

Above all, the health crisis weakens the safeguards in place in France against corruption.

Transparency International France thus regrets a climate of urgency which favors the opacity of decision-making.

"The dissolution on Wednesday of the information mission of the National Assembly on Covid-19 reduces, for example, the spaces for debate where the executive must be accountable for its action," notes the organization. 

The government also tends, in the name of the speed imperative, to relax the rules concerning the award of public contracts.

The risk is that "it is tempted to perpetuate these emergency procedures", warns Nadège Buquet.

Dangers which are not, as in the most vulnerable countries, questions of life and death.

But these are all decisions that open the door to potential abuse.

For countries that, like France, are not at the bottom of Transparency International's ranking, the effect of the health crisis is perhaps more insidious in that it places these nations on very slippery slopes.

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