Take corruption perception ranking with a pinch of salt, says Brazil’s comptroller

After Brazil dropped ten places in Transparency International’s annual ranking of perceptions of public sector corruption in 2023, the Federal Comptroller General’s Office (CGU) issued a statement urging the results to be “viewed with caution” and patting the government on the back for its anti-corruption efforts.

Brazil scored only 36 points on Transparency International’s scale of 0 to 100. The score is two points lower than in 2022 and placed the country 104th out of 180. The ranking is based on international assessments that captured the perceptions of experts and businesspeople on the topic of corruption in certain countries.

The Comptroller General’s Office, however, casts doubt about the efficacy of rankings based on “perception,” and claims that international studies are exploring the methodological limitations of such surveys.

“Several international organizations — among them the UN, G20, and the OECD — have discussed coming up with new measures on the issue. Corruption is a complex phenomenon and no indicator can measure all of its aspects,” reads the statement. 

That being said, an October 2023 report by the OECD highlights concerns about how Brazilian institutions have operated to neuter recent anti-corruption investigations.

While Brazil scored lower in the most recent edition of the ranking, Transparency International praised the restoration of councils for popular participation in policymaking, the “broad rescue of environmental governance,” and the declassification of documents improperly labeled confidential by the far-right former Jair Bolsonaro administration. 

The CGU noted that the report released today “acknowledges important progress in the field of social control, transparency, and access to information, which are priorities for the federal government.”

While fluctuations in the perception of corruption in Brazil have been small over the last five years, the country is seen as considerably more corrupt today than it was ten years ago — shortly before the sweeping Operation Car Wash anti-corruption investigation was launched, revealing deep-rooted corruption schemes that tainted public companies and political parties. 

That said, a similar trend can be seen in most developed countries over the past decade, with regard to the perception of corruption.

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