The ranking represented a significant rise for Myanmar, which ranked 172 out of 176 last year. That lowly ranking drew criticism from some Myanmar watchers, who questioned whether the widely cited index had failed to adequately account for Myanmar’s reforms agenda undertaken by the government of President U Thein Sein.
Srirak Plipat, Transparency International’s regional director for Asia Pacific, said this year’s ranking more fully accounts for the country’s reform process. While he said the country’s opening was not directly responsible for Myanmar’s rise, it has led to a number of new regulatory frameworks aimed at combating corruption being implemented and in turn strengthened the country’s position in the index.
Mr Srirak said enactment of the Anti-Corruption Law, which was passed by parliament in July, and Myanmar becoming a state party to the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in January were the most important factors in the rankings rise.
The government’s formation of an Anti-Corruption Committee was another positive step, Mr Srirak said. However, he said concerns remain over the committee’s independence from the government, adding that it must be fully independent in order “to fight impunity in a meaningful way”.
Another area of concern for Transparency International is the extractive industries sector, one that has seen a flurry of activity over the past year. Winners of exploration licences for 18 onshore oil and gas blocks were announced in October. The bidding round for 30 offshore blocks closed in November and the winners are expected to be announced in the first quarter of 2014.
“The government needs to ensure that these [natural resources] revenues will benefit the majority,” Mr Srirak said, adding that Myanmar is battling a culture of corruption and not just at the highest levels of government and business.
“In Myanmar corruption has been part of people’s lives for decades. You have to have many strong messages for anti-corruption” to fight this culture.
The criticism of last year’s index intensified when Samantha Grant, the group’s Southeast Asia program coordinator, told the Irrawaddy that the reforms had not impacted the 2012 rankings as some of the data had been collected two years earlier.
In an op-ed published in The Myanmar Times in December 2012, Derek Tonkin, chairman of non-profit Network Myanmar and adviser to Bagan Capital, called the index an “exercise in futility”.
“It is at heart a political statement, not a reliable indicator of the current level of official corruption in Myanmar,” Mr Tonkin wrote.
Transparency International describes it as a “composite index, drawing on corruption-related data from expert and business surveys carried out by a variety of independent and reputable institutions”.
source: The Myanmar Times
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