Ecuador questions methodology of Transparency International Corruption Index

andes.info.ec reported that The United States oil company, Chevron-Texaco, sentenced to pay $9.5 billion dollars for environmental remediation of the Ecuadorian Amazon, is one of the international companies that finances the organization Transparency International. Public Administration Secretary, Cristian Castillo, shared with the Andes Agency that the organization elaborated a report on corruption, placing Ecuador in place number 102 of 175 countries. “Transparency International is a NGO (Non-governmental organization) that operates the same as any international company. Its access to resources always has to do with those who fund it, and this year we made an interesting discovery that one of those funders is Chevron,” stated Castillo. The official, who rejected Transparency International’s report for being conducted under a method questioned by the Ecuadorian government, told the Andes Agency that other entities that provide funds to the NGO include companies from the United States such as Exxon, General Motors, Chrysler, and IBM in addition to other European companies such as Lufthansa and Renault, among others. “Of course, it is the megacorporations that maintain the status quo,” he stated. Castillo added that he, “…can’t confirm if Chervron-Texaco influenced the data in order to affect the country’s perception in Transparency International’s report, but it does raise suspicions.”

“Those with money have the relative power of influence. One would have to ask Transparency International to see if it wants to make its accounting transparent and if it influences data on the perception it has of the government, as it best meets the needs of the international agency,” the secretary affirmed, questioning why the United States is not among the countries considered to be the most corrupt.

The 2013 edition of Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) places Ecuador at 102 of 175 countries assessed on a global level and gives it a perception index of 35 points over 100.

In comparision with 2012, Ecuador’s score rose by 3 points and advanced 16 places with regard to its world ranking. Nevertheless, Ecuador has rejected the NGO’s report, due to the methods used to obtain the data.

A statement made by the Public Administration Secretary indicated that, “The information gathered for this report is based on subjective surveys that indicate the degree of corruption in the public sector according to the perception of companies and analysts in the country, but the surveys do not have any clear methodological foundation.” Read Article