Lebanon more corrupt than most regional peers

Customs, food safety scandals reinforce this view

Lebanon is the 46th most corrupt nation worldwide, according to the 2012 Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International, where the first place is assigned to the least corrupt. “Our ranking has fallen behind other countries in the region” said Nada Abdul Sater, head of the anti-corruption watchdog Lebanese Transparency Association (LTA).

Lebanon ranked 128th out of 176 countries surveyed. The country came in 13th place among countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Only Iran, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and Iraq were perceived as more corrupt.

In 2011 and 2010, the country came in 134th and 127th places respectively. The index ranks countries based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived by experts and businesses. It uses the data to assign scores ranging from zero to 100, where zero stands for highly corrupt. Lebanon scored 30 points, well over a global average of 43 points.

Abdul Sater said corruption scandals in food safety and medicine, and the absence of accountability measures by the government, has highly impacted the public’s view of corruption. “Allegations of public sector corruption, namely those about customs’ evasion at the Beirut port have also played a role in reinforcing this perception,” she said.