Macau, China, 09 Apr – A survey released by the privately owned Political & Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) in Hong Kong yesterday ranked Macau the fourth “least corrupt” among 14 Asia economies according with the Macau Post Daily.
In the ranking, Singapore , Hong Kong and Japan finished in first, second and third place, respectively.
The Philippines , Indonesia and Cambodia were ranked the “most corrupt” Asian economies, ranked 12th, 13th and 14th, respectively.
Taiwan came in sixth, while the mainland finished 10th.
The survey was conducted in March through face-to-face interviews, direct mails and e-mails, involving about 1,750 respondents in 16 countries and regions, including – for the first time – the United States in general and Chicago in particular.
In the survey’s “political corruption” list comprising 17 countries and regions, as well as Chicago , Macau finished in 8th place, just after Chicago and ahead of mainland China and Taiwan .
Singapore , Hong Kong and Australia were ranked as the “politically least corrupt” economies, while Cambodia , Thailand and Indonesia ended up as the “politically most corrupt.”
The survey’s grading scale ranges from zero to 10, with zero best grade possible (“least corrupt”) and 10 the worst (“most corrupt”).
For this year, Macau got a grade of 3.75, as against a 3.30 in 2008, 5.18 in 2007 and 4.78 in 2006.
The survey’s commentary points out that “the cloud of the Ao Man Long (ex-secretary for Transport and Public Works) corruption scandal continues to hang over Macau .”
The commentary maintains the fact that Mr. Ao has already been convicted to 27 years behind “shows that the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) is vigorously pursuing graft when it is uncovered – and is why Macau scores as favourably as it does in out survey when we asked businesspeople there how serious the government is about fighting corruption.
According with The Macau Post Daily the commentary also says that the CCAC does “not have a mandate to investigate corruption in the private sector, and that could explain why Macau is graded more harshly than Hong Kong, where the majority of corruption cases reported to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) involve the private sector.”
The commentary points out that “Macau is drafting related laws to extend the CCAC’s jurisdiction over the private the private sector, but as in the case of Hong Kong , it will take time to show results,” adding, “Clearly, Ao Man Long did not operate alone. And it was mainly private-sector people who bribed him.”
“The problem Macau is likely to face in the coming year involves more of manpower limitations than a lack of desire to fight graft”said the commentary.
(Macaunews)
