Epress.am News from Armenia
A Nov. 3 report by the Center for Global Development (CGD) looked at which countries surveyed passed the 2011 Corruption Indicator.
The CGD report offers a preview into Round 8 of the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s country selection. According to the report, “The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) provides US development assistance to well-governed poor countries around the world. As part of eligibility determination, countries are measured in relation to their income-level peers on 17 indicators in 3 categories: ruling justly, encouraging economic freedom, and investing in people. The control of corruption indicator in the ruling justly category is the only ‘hard hurdle’ to compact eligibility, meaning a country must score above the median to be eligible for compact assistance.
“The corruption scores highlighted in the report, examined in tandem with the MCC’s recently released reports on 2011
candidate countries and selection criteria and methodology, offer initial insights into the upcoming 2011 eligibility selection process.” In short, if a country fails in this category, it’s likely that it won’t receive financial assistance next year.
Unfortunately, Armenia was one of the countries that failed in the control of corruption indicator.
“Two of nineteen countries with signed compacts in force (Armenia and Mongolia) fail the FY2011 control of corruption indicator,” reads one of the report’s key findings.
“For the fourth year in a row, Armenia fails the control of corruption indicator. Armenia drops 5 percentage points to the 42nd percentile this year. Armenia has failed the control of corruption indicator since its graduation to the LMIC category in FY2008. It has just begun the fifth year of implementing a $236 million compact focused on infrastructure, irrigation, and agribusiness.”
With a percentile rank of 42 in the “lower middle income country percentile rankings on FY2011 Control of Corruption Indicator,” Armenia is doing far worse than its neighbor to the north, Georgia.
Like Armenia, Georgia too is currently receiving compact assistance. The country ranked at the 68th percentile and has passed the control of corruption indicator with flying colors since 2007.
According to the report, “Georgia’s $395 million compact is focused on enterprise development and regional infrastructure rehabilitation. Georgia is also a potential candidate for eligibility for a second MCC compact.”
Note that the control of corruption indicator is measured in two categories: low income (LIC) and lower middle income countries (LMIC) — Armenia and Georgia are both ranked in the LMIC category. To pass the control of corruption indicator, a country must score above the median (50th percentile) in its income bracket.