Italy is at the top of the world ranking of perceived corruption and ranks on a par with countries such as Ghana and Macedonia. This is what emerges from the second report produced by the commission on the prevention of the corruption phenomenon chaired by the councilor Roberto Garofoli and appointed by the Minister of Public Administration, Filippo Patroni Griffi.
The latest surveys on the perceived corruption index calculated by Transparency International, the Report points out, place Italy in 69th place. In particular, the survey speaks of a progressive worsening of corruption perceived in recent years. If our country were to rank among the least corrupt, the rate of economic growth would have more than tripled in the short term and roughly doubled between 1970 and 2000. Furthermore, each point of descent in the corruption perception ranking results in a loss of 16 % of investments from abroad.
Corruption hinders the technological progress of companies, "encouraged to invest in the bribe market rather than in innovation and research", writes the commission.
According to a recent study by the World Bank, cited in the Report, "firms forced to deal with a corrupt public administration and that have to pay bribes grow on average almost 25% less than firms that do not deal with this problem". SMEs and younger companies are most strongly affected: small companies have a sales growth rate of more than 40% lower than large ones.
