Bus332: Reply to 2 Classmates (Corruption Perceptions Index)

Respond to two other students, and express what you learn from the insights they shared, focusing on integrating and building upon the knowledge shared in the discussion.

• Background info for Student Writing: For this discussion, we will use data from Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index, to focus on either a specific country or identify and discuss a case study you find of a company involved in corruption-related issues.
• Student 1: "The country I chose for this discussion post is Finland. Finland are one of the least corrupt countries with a score of 87. They are tied with New Zealand for second place and behind first place Denmark with a score of 90. Finland has been consistent in the corruption perception index and usually fall around the same spot at the end of every yearly assessment. One of the biggest reasons why Finland's corruption is so little is because of their style of government. Finland pride themselves for having a government that is transparent and allows countless freedoms and liberties to its people. In an attempt to address corruption in the country, Finland has even imposed a law that forces political figures/officials to openly state what their assets and income look like. They also have independent entities to oversee corruption such as the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority to look at certain financial transactions that aid corruption prevention. I've linked the law below if you are interested in reading more about it. One country I want to take a closer look at is Denmark. Like Finland, they are a nordic country who always do well in the CPI ranking. Like I mentioned earlier, they are in first place in the CPI rankings with a score of 90. Denmark also has laws imposing transparency from its political figures/officials in an attempt to avoid corruption. Again, similar to Finland there are high levels of trust between the people and the government and low levels of bureaucracy. "
• Student 2: "In 2022, Canada scored a 74 on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), which ranked it 13/180 worldwide, and 1/31 within the Americas. While the country still owns the top spot in its region, its score has dropped 9 points since 2015, which is one of the worst declines among all nations. The data clearly indicates that Canada has fallen well behind countries such as Norway, Singapore, and Switzerland which were all at similar levels prior. Some say that Canada has gone downhill since Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister in 2015, which may be a valid argument considering all of the scandals that have occurred during his time in office. For example, ethical breaches were found in 2020 when a $900 million WE Charity student grant program was secretly paying the Trudeau Family. In 2016, Trudeau was found guilty of breaking four provisions of the Conflict of Interest Act when he accepted a private island vacation during Christmas, which made him the first Canadian Prime Minister to ever violate an ethics law. Transparency International admits that its indexes often fail to catch different types of financial corruption among higher-scoring countries like Canada. They say that "these seemingly 'clean' countries are enabling or even fuelling cross-border corruption, even if it may originate from other places further down the CPI table." For example, foreign business/government tycoons often look to Canadian real estate for various loopholes. Uruguay was just behind Canada with a CPI score of 73 in 2022, which placed it 2/31 in the region. However, unlike Canada, Uruguay has seen consistent improvement in the last several years, making it somewhat of an outlier in the struggling Americas. It is said that these improvements started three decades ago when its dictatorship government came to an end. More recently, Uruguay has been able to incorporate e-services into government, making it easier for citizens to be informed and participate."