Cost of corruption in Norway; Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation declared extremist and meet “Mr. Mmmmmm Xxxxxxxxxxx”
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MEASURING CORRUPTION
The battle against corruption has long had a slightly embarrassing secret, which probably everyone involved was aware of, but no one wanted to talk about too much, in case it discredited the whole campaign. The secret is this: although activists and politicians regularly cite specific numbers to illustrate how big a problem corruption is – $2 trillion is laundered every year being perhaps the classic example – these numbers are often rather shakily sourced.
There is a good reason to be unsure about the precise amount of money lost to corruption each year, in that the money is hidden by skilled enablers, stolen from countries dominated by corrupt politicians, and so on. But often the numbers cited are suspiciously specific – 37 billion pounds, for example – in a way that makes them look far better-sourced than they in fact are.
So kudos to Norway’s U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Center, which works with many of the world’s most important development agencies. It has taken a forensic approach to fact checking 10 of the most-cited numbers, with rather alarming results for anyone who has merrily cited them over the years – such as in this article by me, which is inspired by the claim that a trillion dollars is paid in bribes each year.