Australia, Singapore: Least Tainted with Corruption--survey

By C.J. Perrin | March 30, 2011 4:18 AM EDT

Dealing with the government and private sector in countries Australia and Singapore were perceived to be the least tainted with corruption, a new survey made by Hong Kong-based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy, Ltd.'s (PERC) latest Asian Intelligence report indicated.

These two countries, figured prominently as the least of those with corrupt practices that marred the smooth running of government agencies and private companies.

On a scale of one to 10 -- with 10 being the worst -- scoring a low 0.37 percent is Singapore, and Hong Kong scored 1.10, while Australia 1.39.

This latest survey -- conducted from November 2010 to February 2011 -- PERC polled respondents on their views on political, institutional and private sector corruption.PERC covered 1,725 middle and senior expatriate business executives working in Asia, the US and Australia. The expatriates were asked to provide scores only for the country where they were working and their country of origin.

Corruption in countries Cambodia, Indonesia, and the Philippines worsened in the last few months, .

These Asian countries continue to be viewed as having serious corruption problems, with its overall score in a regional survey worsening even though it did not slip in a ranking among 16 nations.

Cambodia scored 9.27 from 8.30; Indonesia got 9.25 from 9.07; and the Philippines garnered a score of 8.9, poorer than 2010's 8.25.
The Asian average, which excludes the grades of Australia and the United States, worsened to 6.08 from 5.90 in 2011.

Faring little better after the Philippines were India (8.67), Vietnam (8.30), China (7.93) and Thailand (7.55).
Rounding out the list with scores superior to the regional average were South Korea (5.90), Malaysia (5.70), Taiwan (5.65), Macau (4.68), the US (2.39) and Japan (1.90).