By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter
SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – Brazil fell seventeen positions to 96th place in the Corruption Perception’s Index (CPI), according to Transparency International. The country is now tied with countries such as Colombia, Indonesia and Panama, and below countries such as Burkina Faso, Rwanda and Saudi Arabia.
The index released worldwide on Wednesday (February 21st) by the organization, which is the leading organization dedicated to fighting corruption around the world, stated that 2017 revealed Brazil in the worst situation, in terms of corruption, of the last five years.
According to Transparency International, the downward trajectory observed can be explained by the effects of Lava Jato and the perception of Brazilians that the structural factors which lead to, nourish and maintain corruption remain intact.
“There was no hint of a systemic response to the problem in 2017; on the contrary, the old politics, that cling to power, sabotaged any attempt in that direction,” Transparency International Brasil’s representative, Bruno Brandão told daily O Globo.
To try to help Transparency International and the Getúlio Vargas Foundation are preparing a major anti-corruption project which contain more than eighty proposals.
They include the reduction or even an end of privileged forum for elected officials, reduction of state bureaucracy, lobbying regulation, creation of special courts to try corruption charges, the end of compulsory retirement as the penalty for judges convicted of corruption and anti-corruption classes in school curriculum.