by In 2022, Brazil rose two places on the Corruption Perceptions Index, according to a report by Transparency International, which accuses former president Jair Bolsonaro of creating “the largest institutionalized corruption scheme” ever.
In this year’s edition of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), prepared by the non-governmental organization (NGO) Transparency International, Brazil reached the same 38 points, on a scale of zero to 100, that it received in 2021.
According to this NGO, Jair Bolsonaro’s term (2019-2023) “was marked by the dismantling of anti-corruption structures that took decades to build.”
Transparency International believes the Bolsonaro government “created the largest institutionalized corruption scheme ever known in Brazil, known as the ‘hidden budget'”.
“With this scheme, billions of reals were used to favor political allies, with serious implications for health, education and infrastructure policies,” he emphasizes.
According to the report, “the combination of corruption, authoritarianism and economic recession” has proved “particularly volatile” in the country.
Considered a country to watch in 2023, Transparency International points out that Brazil’s current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the Labor Party “have yet to present a concrete anti-corruption plan for the future, nor have determine how to restore the autonomy of key institutions such as the Attorney General’s Office, the Federal Police and environmental agencies.”
Brazil’s trend over the past five years has translated into an increase of three points, but considering the last 10 years, it has lost five.
The IPC was created by Transparency International in 1995 and has since become a benchmark in the analysis of the phenomenon of corruption, based on the perception of experts and business executives on the levels of corruption in the public sector.
It is a composite index, that is, it is derived from the combination of corruption analysis sources developed by other independent organizations and ranks 180 countries and regions from zero (considered very corrupt) to 100 points (very transparent).
In 2012, the organization revised the methodology used to create the index to allow comparison of scores from one year to the next.
