10. VenezuelaDictator Hugo Chavez

claims to work for the people but the biggest beneficiaries of his authoritarian regime have been friends and political cronies. Venezuela ranks 175 out of 179 countries on the Heritage Foundation’s 2011 Index of Economic Freedom thanks to diminishing freedom of labour and widespread expropriations of private businesses.

9. HaitiThis Island nation declared

independence in 1804 and less then two years latter its first Emperor, Jean Jacques Dessalines, was shot and hacked to pieces by citizens angry over rampant corruption. Little has since then. The 2010 earthquake death toll was magnified by illegally constructed buildings and post-earthquake and efforts have been hampered by widespread government corruption.

8. Iraq Compared to reign of

Saddam Hussein, any government would look good. But Iraq’s Shiite leader s are widely criticized by citizens for corrupt dealings that deprive the country of reliable water, electricity and fuel supplies. The head of the Iraqi Parliament, Osama al-Nujaifi in October complained of “corruption mafias that seem to spread through the establishment like an octopus”.

7. Sudan Leave aside the fact that

Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir has been indicated by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and genocide. This resource-rich nation has a problem telling its citizens where their money’s going. Global witness last year uncovered a $370 million discrepancy between what the Chain National Petroleum company reported pumping from Sudanese fields and what the government reported receiving in royalties. It’s a safe bet the money didn’t go toward healthcare for the poor

6. Turkmenistan “Corruption is pervasive” in this

recourse-rich nation, says the State Dept., with power concentrated in the hands of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. The government controls most sectors of the economy including Turkmenistan’s vast natural gas reserves, which make the country the second-largest gas exporter in the former Soviet Union after Russia. Oil and Gas surpluses are supposedly stored in a stabilization fund although Global Witness reports “there is no evidence, other than the president’s word, that such a fund exists.”

5. Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov, an

old Communist warhorse, controls the legislature, judiciary and media and keeps getting elected by suspiciously large margins-88% of the vote December 2007. With the government controlling the large swaths of the economy, corruption and oppression are getting worse in most populous nation in Central Asia. “Grades and degrees are routinely purchased” in the education system, according to the U.S state Dept.

4. Afghanistan

The U.S will be aggressively pulling down troops from Afghanistan next year, leaving its citizens at the mercy of a government that has so far shown no willingness to curb corruption. The Pentagon determined earlier this year that four of eight prime contractors in a $2.2 billion transportation programme were funnelling U.S funds to the Taliban.

3. Myanmar Secretary of State Hilary

Clinton’s visit to Myanmar demonstrates a new willingness to engage with the country still known as Burma to the U.S., following the election of a civilian government last year. But the corruption, plundering of a timber and other natural resources and political repression that led to sanctions are still rampant. One critic says the government is composed mostly of “generals who took off their uniforms.”

2. North Korea Narcotics, counterfeit bills

and illegal weapon sales are just the way dictator Kim Jong-II makes money from the rest of the world. Inside this secretive nation, government officials plunder their own citizenry by demanding bribes for everything from permits to run market food stalls to permission to leave one’s hometown. With its hereditary form of government and rigid caste system, North Korea resembles a poor, nuclear-equipped version of Imperial Japan.

1. Somalia When it comes to corruption,

no nation can compare to Somalia. Pirates seize ships at will, the al-Shabaab movement terrorizes much of the country, and the most ineffective Transitional National Government specializes in looting foreign aid intended for starving refugees. “The scale of the TFG’s financial haemorrhaging is so immense that the term ‘corruption’ seems barely adequate,” says U.N. Monitor Matt Bryden.