Transparency International ranks Chile as the least corrupt country in Latin America, with a rating of 7.2 out of a possible 10 points on last year’s corruption perception index (http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011/results/). While this puts it ahead of the United States, which ranked 7.0, and several European countries, most Chileans feel their country could do much better. The Fundacion Ciudadano Inteligente’s transparency project is the subject of an article on the web site Techpresident, which recounts how the nonprofit group has prompted Chilean politicians to reveal their financial interests. Author David Eaves writes that
“In theory, Chilean law requires that politicians both disclose their corporate interests and abstain from voting on issues related to those interests (as well as those of their family members, up to three levels of affinity). In practice however, that law has not been taken too seriously. Indeed, not only do many politicians fail to disclose companies in which they or their family have interests, those that do often scribble them on the backs of pieces of paper. Scraps of illegible paper hardly comprise a system that creates confidence. This is where the Inspector de Intereses project comes into play. It documents the corporate interests of Chile’s national politicians with the goal of exposing (or preventing) conflicts of interest when votes related to those corporations, such as legislation on mining or agriculture, take place.”
To read more: http://techpresident.com/news/wegov/22198/culture-hacking-how-one-project-changing-transparency-chile
Fundacion Ciudadano Inteligente’s web site: http://ciudadanointeligente.cl/
Notes on the Americas 