Ireland rises to 17th in transparency index

Ireland’s image as being an honest country in which to do business has improved for the second year in a row, according to an index of corruption perceptions published by Transparency International.

As the memories of the Mahon and Moriarty tribunals begin to fade, Ireland moved from 25th place in the 174 countries scored in 2012 to 17th this year. The head of Transparency International in Ireland, John Devitt, said this should not lead to complacency when one considers just 10% of investigations into corruption lead to a prosecution.

Four of the top five performing countries were European — Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Norway — and the warning about complacency was repeated by the group’s EU director, Carl Dolan. “Although some of the best performing countries are in Europe, EU states should be concerned about their complicity in corruption around the globe. We know that any effort to stop corruption in one country is undermined as long as corrupt officials are allowed to hide their money in another,” he said.

Mr Devitt said that, in Ireland, local authorities and public procurement across the public sector still appeared vulnerable to corruption because of the amounts of money to be gained through government contracts as well as rising property values.

“When you factor in the probability that you will not be caught for bending or breaking the law, there is a clear incentive for some people to engage in graft,” he said.

In Europe, generally, the developing world lost around €800bn in illicit outflows in 2011 alone, an increase of more than 13% in one year. The money represents the proceeds of crime, corruption, tax evasion, and other illegal activity, according to a report by Global Financial Integrity.

Money-laundering is still rife, with Britain recently launching an investigation into 19 companies laundering a suspected €15bn thought to have been channelled from Russia.

The EU is in the final stages of agreeing its revised anti-money laundering directive that are expected to include arrangements to shed light on the ultimate beneficial owners of companies and other arrangements designed to hide their true owners.

Denmark, again the least corrupt country in the world, has created public registers that show exactly who really controls every company. Transparency International is running a campaign, Unmask the Corrupt, to have the EU and other financial centres follow suit.