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For the third year in a row, Mexico fell again in the 2018 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) issued by the non-governmental organization Transparency International (TI) . According to a report that was presented last Sunday in Berlin , the country went from the 135th position (score obtained in 2017) to the 138th position among 180 countries .
On a scale from 0 to 100, with zero being the worst evaluation, Mexico scored 28 points on the CPI in 2018, making it one of the lowest among OECD members .
Mexico even ranked lower than Greece and Hunagry
, “which faced severe governance and economic viability issues in recent years,” the OECD indicated.
“In the Latin American region , Mexico also showed unflattering results: Chile, for example, was 111 places ahead of Mexico , while Argentina, another federated state, was 53 places ahead. Mexico ranked among the worst in Latin America, barely above Guatemala and Nicaragua, both of which are currently facing a severe democratic governance crisis ,” the report stated.
A systematic review of the past six Transparency International reports, Mexico showed the highest levels of corruption during the six year rule of the former president Enrique Peña Nieto .
In 2017, Mexico fell 12 places in the CPI, going from the 123rd to the 135th position, scoring 29 points on a scale from 0 to 100. In 2016, the country dropped 28 places with regard to 2015, ranking 95th among the countries evaluated.
In 2014, the country ranked 90th in a list of 168 countries and was the 34th worst-ranked country among OECD nations, whereas in 2013 and 2012, it ranked 106th out of 177 in the CPI, with a score of 34 points, placing it between Argentina, Gabon, and Niger.
Still dropping
In terms of corruption, Mexico has continued to drop, now ranking among countries with serious governance issues and extremely low income and human development levels. Although Denmark, New Zealand, and Finland lost one point each in the 2018 CPI, they continue to be the least corrupt countries in the world .
The Mexican Transparency Organization conducted an analysis on the country’s anti-corruption policy and noted that most measures adopted by the institution, many of which have proven to be ineffective, were for prevention only.
“In contrast, a limited number of Mexico’s anti-corruption measures lead to convictions, recovery of stolen assets, or payment of damages to victims ,” the organization claimed, adding that the country had been unable to dismantle corruption networks detected thus far.
“The preventive measures taken so far are rendered ineffective by the fact that those participating in corruption networks know that they are unlikely to face prosecution and conviction, and that they may even keep the assets siphoned from the public purse,” said Eduardo Bojórquez, general director of Mexican Transparency .
The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) pointed out that, out of all 702 audits conducted by the Federal Public Administration in 2016, only 353 resulted in legal proceedings, and barely 16 led to conviction . The organization added that, although the new National Anti-Corruption System was created three years ago, it is not yet fully integrated and is not properly functional.
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