(MintPress)—Lack of transparency and accountability in state governments continue to exacerbate corruption across the United States according to the State Integrity Investigation released this month, which revealed that half of the 50 states received a D or lower on the corruption risk report card.
Only five states ranked in the B range and eight states received an F in the study conducted by the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity, and Public Radio International (PRI) – not a single state received an A.
New Jersey was ranked least corrupt, receiving a B+ at 87%, followed by Connecticut, Washington, California, and Nebraska. At 49%, Georgia was the most corrupt state, with South Dakota and Wyoming not too far ahead.
New Jersey received the best ranking because of its extensive financial disclosure requirements, transparently-run pension fund, and the toughest ethics and anti-corruption enforcement agency in the country.
New Jersey ranked first in the integrity survey for ethics enforcement and executive branch accountability based on strong ethics laws established during the 2004-05 legislative session in response to a corrupt, scandalous administration under former Governor Jim McGreevey.
Despite New Jersey’s valiant efforts to curb government corruption and increase transparency, the State Integrity Investigation still found significant shortcomings in the state’s regulations. New Jersey may be the state with the least risk of corruption, the Garden State still only received a score of 87.
Colleen O’Dea, a staff writer for the Center for Public Integrity, points out several issues that put New Jersey at risk of corruption: there are no financial caps on money raised by nonprofit, issue-advocacy organizations for public election campaigns; companies are not required to report how much they pay their lobbyists nor are lobbyists required to link spending and salaries to issues advocated; and several issues with financial disclosure and transparency.
New Jersey still performed much better in the analysis of the laws and practices set up to deter corruption and promote accountability and openness than states that ranked less than 59%, including Michigan, South Dakota, and Wyoming.
“What’s behind the dismal grades?” asks Caitlin Ginley, a staff writer for the Center for Public Integrity and a project manager on the study. “Across the board, state ethics, open records, and disclosure laws lack one key feature: teeth.”
In Georgia, a plethora of laws prohibit legislators from accepting gifts, politicians from using campaign money for personal use, and companies from supporting candidates for offices that directly regulate them. Yet, loopholes and a lack of oversight make almost all anti-corruption legislation meaningless.
In direct violation of ethics laws, over 650 government employees accepted sports tickets, speaking fees, expensive meals, and other gifts from vendors with various business interests in the state between 2007 and 2008. The last reported state-issued penalty for a vendor was over a decade ago in 1999.
The Center for Public Integrity reported that in Maine, which ranked 43rd in the study, loopholes in state laws allowed one state senator to conceal “$98 million in state contracts that were given to an organization for which he served as executive director.”
Budget cuts, small staffs, and lack of authority also make it increasingly difficult for many states’ ethics committees to enforce laws and hold government officials accountable for corruption.
Corruption Convictions Versus Corrupt States
A separate report released by the University of Illinois at Chicago in February reveals data contrary to that of the State Integrity Investigation, hinting that New York may actually be the most corrupt state and not Georgia. According to the report, New York, California, and Illinois to the list of the most corrupt states in the country.
Instead of analyzing state laws and practices that deter corruption and promote accountability, the Chicago report ranks states solely based on the total number of federal public corruption convictions from 1976-2010.
Based on public corruption convictions, New Jersey ranks 7th among states with the most convictions per capita. When looking at convictions per judicial districts, New Jersey (Newark) ranked 6th nationally.
California, ranked 4th in the State Integrity Investigation, was ranked 2nd more corrupt based on convictions per state in the Chicago report. None of the worst eight states on the State Integrity Investigation made the list of top 10 total state convictions in the Chicago report.
Some argue, however, that higher convictions may be a sign of less corruption because states are able to identify and punish corrupt public officials.
“States with relatively low numbers of convictions are not necessarily more accountable, but perhaps less equipped to sniff out malfeasance and go after the bad guys.” says Ginley. “So the State Integrity Investigation takes a different approach by measuring the risks of corruption, as reflected in the strength or weakness of laws, policies, and procedures designed to assure transparency and accountability in state government.”
Corruption on a Global Scale
Worldwide, the U.S. ranks 24th on the 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) with a score of 7.1 on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the least corrupt. New Zealand was most clean with a score of 9.5, followed closely by a tie for second between Denmark and Finland at 9.4.
Somalia and North Korea tied for the most corrupt country at 182nd place with a score of 1. The majority of countries assessed scored below a 5.
Although the United States was ranked relatively well compared to the majority of countries surveyed, there is still a great need for improvement. Qatar, Chile, Barbados, Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore are among the countries that ranked higher than the United States on the CPI.
The CPI measures the perceived level of corruption in a country based on assessments and opinion surveys because corruption is widely hidden and difficult to measure exactly. Because CPI data is collected based on the perceptions of civilians, rankings may be skewed depending on the extent to which the population is aware of corrupt behavior.
There is no doubt that the United States is plagued with corruption not only in government, but in the financial sector as well – social and economic equality are after is the central focus of the Occupy Movement.
Future CPI surveys may reveal higher levels of corruption in the United States compared to other countries as awareness of government and corporate corruption spreads through reports like the State Integrity Investigation and Occupy Wall Street.
Source: MintPress