Corruption in

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

is generally low and is regarded as having the best record in

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

. Its anti-corruption laws are generally well enforced. However, there are persistent problems with high level corruption and most notably, every president who has taken office since 1990s has faced allegations of corrupt behavior.

Background

Rising corruption became a matter of grave concern to the people of

in the early 2000s when a newly assertive press reporting on government corruption sparked public outrage. Strides have been made in combatting corruption through the introduction of robust laws and anti-corruption agencies by successive governments. A free and sophisticated investigative press and independent prosecutors are working hard to clamp down on official corruption. However, state agencies combatting corruption are allocated limited resources, hindering their ability to fight corruption. Another concern is the increasing influence of wealthy drug cartels in the region. On

Transparency International Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil s ...

's 2024

Corruption Perceptions Index The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is an index that scores and ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as assessed by experts and business executives. The CPI generally defines corruption as an "abuse of entr ...

, Costa Rica scored 58 on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean"). When ranked by score, Costa Rica ranked 42nd among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector. For comparison with regional scores, the highest score among the countries of the Americas was 76, the average score was 42 and the lowest score was 10. For comparison with worldwide scores, the best score was 90 (ranked 1), the average score was 43, and the worst score was 8 (ranked 180).

Instances of high level corruption

A major scandal shook

in June 2020. It was discovered that private companies offered luxurious houses and cars to state officials in exchange for preferential treatment. Constructors used false invoices as well as inflated prices as means to factor in the bribe paid to state officials, which stood at 78 billion Colone or $125 million . A top aide of then President

Carlos Alvarado Quesada Carlos Andrés Alvarado Quesada (; born 14 January 1980) is a Costa Rican politician, writer, journalist, and political scientist who served as the 48th president of Costa Rica from 8 May 2018 to 8 May 2022. A member of the Citizens' Action Pa ...

was also associated with this scandal, who shortly resigned afterwards. Judicial officials have also been implicated in major corruption scandals. A judge and a member of Costa Rica's national police force were arrested in connection with being involved in the activities of a major drug trafficking and criminal organization in December 2020. A month earlier, a judge and judicial assistant were arrested for their alleged collaboration with drug traffickers. A 2020 report from Costa Rica's state of the nation program showed that only one in ten complaints regarding corruption made it to trial, raising concerns for impunity.

Legal and Institutional framework

faced serious challenge in fighting against corruption due to lack of a leading anti-corruption agency. Many legislative agendas were envisioned to fight against corruption, but those proposals have not been turned into laws. There were no strong mechanisms for asset recovery. Besides, protection for

whistleblower Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

s is also limited.

also lacks an access to information law.

Notes

References

{{North America topic, Corruption in Politics of Costa Rica

Crime in Costa Rica Law of Costa Rica Economy of Costa Rica Government of Costa Rica Society of Costa Rica