Interview With Alejandro Salas, Acting Director, Americas Regional Department, Transparency International

Abstract

John C. Bersia 17 ARTICLES INTERVIEW WITH ALEJANDRO SALAS,ACTING DIRECTOR, AMERICAS REGIONAL DEPARTMENT, TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL John C. Bersia Universityof Central Florida Alejandro Salas serves as Acting Director of the Americas Regional Department at TransparencyInternational(T1).TI is the leading organization fighting corruption around the world. He recentlydiscussed his organization’slatestfindings about corruption in Latin America with John C. Bersia, who serves as Special Assistant to the President and is University Professor at the University of Central Florida. Q: In your latest corruption rankings released in late 2005, how did LatinAmerica fare? AlejandroMas: LatinAmericacontinuesto be a region perceived as highly corrupt, accordingto Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI). Out of the 18 Latin American countries included,only Chile and Uruguay have scores above 5. Half of these countries score bellow 3, which indicates endemic corruption. Among them: Paraguay, Venezuela, Guatemala, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua,Honduras and Argentina. Q: How dothose resultscomparewith the findingsof previous years? A: The regional average remains relatively stable at 3.86 (last year’s was 3.65). In terms of individual countries, we can highlight the following:Decliners,2004 to 2005: Costa Rica and Uruguay ; improvers, 2004 to 2005: Argentina, Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras. 18 The Latin Americanist Spring 2006 Q: What may accountfor the changesyou have noted? A: It is difficult to find single reasons that apply to the whole region, however, there are specific situations that shed light on the kinds of issues that are present in some countries and help in understanding why scores are still so low. Of particularinterest is the substantialfallin CostaRica’sperformance(CPI 2005scoreof 4.2; CPI2004scoreof 4.9).Thiscan be attributedin part to several corruption scandals in recent years involving former presidents, multinational companiesand foreign governments. Despite some government efforts to counter these problems, such as creation of the Officeof the SpecialAttorney for Ethics and Public Services, much more is needed to rid the country’s political institutionsof corruption.Brazil (CPI 2005 score of 3.7; CPI 2004 scoreof 3.9) has been hit by corruption and illegal financingscandalsaffecting the country’s executive, legislatureand political parties, deriving directly from vulnerabilities in Brazil’s institutional framework, such as the excessivefreedomof governmentsto appointpolitical appointees to occupy positions in the state’s management. It is clear that a comprehensive approachinvolving an integratedanticorruptionstrategyis required. Q: Could you discuss, as well, the consistently low scores? A: Argentina (CPI 2005 score of 2.8; CPI 2004 score of 2.5) has scored poorly in recent CPIs, reflecting the perception of severe corruption.Despite reforms made to the selection process for the Supreme Court of Justice, and the Access to Public Information decree, there is still much room for improvement. In particular, the Committeedesignatedto overseeexecutionof the budget has not done so for the past 10 years, allowing the Chief of Cabinet to reallocate budgetary funds at his discretion. Guatemala (CPI 2005 score of 2.5; CPI 2004 score of 2.2) has again received a very low score despite recent government initiatives, including the 2004 Commission for Transparency and against Corruption, which advisesthe executiveon how to combatcorruption,and the involvementof various stateand civil societybodies in advocating and promoting better regulation. Further efforts are needed with respect to efficient public anti-corruption institutions, strengthening of the electronic public contracting system and improved access to information.With presidentialelections due in Mexico (CPI 2005 score of 3.5; CPI 2004 score of 3.6) in 2006, the commitment of candidates to increase transparency in income and expenses will be key in avoiding a repeat of 2000’s electoral financing scandals. The government has been active through the John C. Bersia 19 promotion of federal, state and local laws on access to public information,creationof an autonomousentityto guaranteeaccess to public information, and increased monitoring faculties for the Federal Electoral Institute. However, it is clear that much work remains in order to rid Mexico’spublic institutionsof corruption. Q: ThroughoutLatin America, corruption has moved higher on the politicalagenda in recentyears.Why is that? A: We could observe that the anticorruptiondebate and political agenda gained momentum during the second half of the 90s and continued in the Latin America region up to 2004. This was an important consequence after organizations such as TI, the...