Transparency International

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Transparency International (TI) is a leading international non-governmental organization addressing corruption. This includes, but is not limited to, political corruption. It is widely known for producing its annual Corruptions Perceptions Index (see below), a comparative listing of corruption worldwide.

Competitiveness and corruption. Presented at the workshop Corruption – how and why to avoid it in Prague, November 1998
Competitiveness and corruption. Presented at the workshop Corruption – how and why to avoid it in Prague, November 1998

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TI is organised as a group of some 100 national chapters, with an international secretariat in Berlin, Germany. Originally founded in Germany in 1993 as a not-for-profit organisation, TI is now an international non-governmental organisation, and claims to be moving towards a completely democratic organisational structure. TI says of itself:

Transparency International is the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption. It brings people together in a powerful worldwide coalition to end the devastating impact of corruption on men, women and children around the world. TI’s mission is to create change towards a world free of corruption."

It rejects any idea of "northern superiority" regarding corruption, and is committed to exposing corruption world-wide. Since 1995 TI has issued an annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI); it also publishes an annual Global Corruption Report, a Global Corruption Barometer and a Bribe Payers Index.

TI does not undertake investigations on single cases of corruption or expose individual cases. It develops tools for fighting corruption and works with other civil society organisations, companies and governments to implement them. The goal of TI is to be non-partisan and to build coalitions against corruption.

TI's biggest success has been to put the topic of corruption on the world's agenda. International Institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund now view corruption as one of the main obstacles for development, whereas prior to the 1990s this topic wasn't broadly discussed. TI furthermore played a vital role in the introduction of the United Nations convention against corruption and the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

Main article: Corruption Perceptions Index

The CPI - besides the World Bank corruption index - is today the most commonly-used measure for corruption in scientific research. Based on many different studies, it is famed for its accuracy.[citation needed] To form this index, TI compiles surveys that ask businessmen and analysts, both in and outside the countries they are analyzing, their perceptions of how corrupt a country is. Relying on the number of actual corruption cases would not work since laws and enforcement of laws differ significantly from country to country.

The CPI is criticised for two main reasons. The first is a danger of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Country analysts might be influenced by past corruption indices and therefore not realise changes. Secondly, the use of the index values in time-series statistics is problematic due to the way it is calculated.

Main article: Bribe Payers Index

A review of the linkages between countries' competitiveness and the incidence of corruption was initiated at a TI workshop in the International Anti-Corruption Conference in Prague, November 1998.

In March 2006 TI Germany attempted to ban an article from a German Blog[1]. In this article the blogger expressed her disapproval about a friend’s dismissal who used to work at TI Germany, stating accusations that TI viewed as being false. This led some German bloggers to protest against TI’s alleged method of suppressing the freedom of opinion.

This reaction of the German blogosphere aroused media interest. After the blogger got some help from a German lawyer (who was also a blogger), TI Germany and the blogger came to an agreement. TI Germany never published a conclusive comment on this (a press release making some details on the monthly income of the affected employee was withdrawn very quickly[citation needed]).

  1. ^ Blog: gedankenträger
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