PRESIDENT TAKES PART IN CORRUPTION COMBATING MEETING

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSANE/ In frames of the World Economic Forum in Davos, the President Ts.Elbegdorj has delivered a speech at a special meeting on combating corruption organized by the Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI). Present were also Benigno Aquino, the President of the Philippines; Juan Jimenez Mayor, the Premier of Peru; Huguette Labelle, a Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the Transparency International (TI) NGO. While discussing an issue of reducing the corruption index in the world, the participants highly appreciated the sudden drop of this index in Mongolia. The TI NGO was founded in May of 1993 through the initiative of Peter Eigen, a former regional director for the World Bank. Founding board members included Eigen, H.Elshorst, Joe Githongo, Fritz Heimann, Michael Hershman, Kamal Hossain, Dolores L. Español, George Moody Stuart, Jerry Parfitt, Jeremy Pope and Frank Vogl. In 1995, TI developed the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) which ranked nations on the prevalence of corruption within each country, based upon surveys of business people. The CPI was subsequently published annually. It was criticized for poor methodology and unfair treatment of developing nations, while also being praised for highlighting corruption and embarrassing governments. In 1999, TI began publishing the Bribe Payers Index (BPI) which ranked nations according to the prevalence that a country's multinational corporations would offer bribes. B.Khuder