Following the publication of the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index – prepared by Transparency International – which showed a decline for Argentina in the global ranking, academics and national and international experts analyzed the situation at the School of Government of the Universidad Austral the institutional challenges facing the country, the geostrategic threats, and the need for a non-negotiable public ethic.
Last Thursday, February 12th, the Universidad Austral -at its headquarters on Cerrito Street in the city of Buenos Aires- was the setting for a series of conferences whose common theme was "The fight against corruption in Argentina and the world"The meeting focused on analyzing the results of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), compiled annually by Transparency International, which was recently released.
In this new edition, Argentina obtained 36 points, one less than the previous edition. Furthermore, it dropped five places, falling from 99th to 104th out of 182 countries. At the regional level, the average for the Americas remained the same as in the previous edition, at 42 points.
The objective of the activity was to reflect on the fight against corruption in the world and in Argentina, halfway through Javier Milei's current presidential term.
Plurality as an institutional message
The opening of the meeting was led by Dr. Hans-Dieter Holtzmann, project director for South America at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom; the Dr. Klaus G. Binder, representative for Argentina of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, and of Dr. Alfonso Santiago, director of the School of Government of the Universidad Austral.
For its part, Holtzmann He highlighted the presence of two German foundations with different ideologies, alongside the Universidad AustralIt reflects that "transparency and public integrity are universal values" and stressed that corruption is not only a legal problem, but "above all a moral and collective issue" that weakens institutions and limits the development of countries.
“Democracy is strengthened by transparency, limits on power, and accountability. With geopolitical tensions and growing global distrust, the fight against corruption is becoming increasingly important. It is not a technical battle, but one that requires consistency, perseverance, and conviction, as well as committed leaders, universities, journalists, and citizens willing to not look the other way,” he asserted in his opening remarks.
BinderMeanwhile, he was emphatic in pointing out that, despite the rhetoric against the "elite," Argentina fell in the index during the second year of Javier Milei's administration, falling below the American average; and he warned about the economic consequences: "Countries with high levels of corruption have less material well-being" due to the inefficient diversion of resources, he noted.
“The Transparency International index reaches a negative conclusion: corruption is increasing worldwide,” he concluded.
In turn, the Dr. Santiago, director of the School of Government of the Universidad AustralHe linked the issue to the National Constitution, recalling that Article 36 defines corruption offenses as a threat to the democratic order. "Hand in hand with institutional quality comes the improvement of the quality of management and public policies," he stated, and insisted that the improvement must come "from the top down and from the inside out," with a policy of "zero tolerance."
A worrying diagnosis for the region and the country
Then, within the framework of academic dialogue, the Dr. Konstantin Kuhle -German lawyer and politician, member of the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag 2017-2025)- spoke from an international perspective and directly linked democratic quality with levels of integrity.
"The more democratic a country is, the lower the level of corruption," he argued. Kuhle, and warned about the emergence of a "geostrategic corruption" where authoritarian states use corruption as a form of "hybrid warfare" to influence foreign processes.
“Corruption is a very useful indicator for measuring the state of democracy in countries. The higher the corruption perception index, the worse the protection of fundamental rights. Authoritarian states use corruption as a geopolitical strategy within the framework of hybrid warfare,” Kuhle argued.
Then the Dr. Delia Ferreira RubioThe former president of Transparency International agreed that the world is "red hot" in terms of corruption.
“Corruption is a global problem. Money stolen through corruption ends up in the City of London, in real estate in New York and Canada, in the luxury industry in France, and in the art market in Switzerland. Corrupt individuals around the world stash their assets in the countries that rank highest in the Corruption Perceptions Index.” Transparency International “We call them the problems at the top of the ranking,” he noted, and denounced the role of “facilitating” countries, as well as that of professionals such as bankers and lawyers who allow stolen money to end up in large international financial centers.
He added: “Corruption is not a victimless crime. Here in Argentina, we said that Corruption killsRegarding the Once train tragedy, he added, "And it has killed many people around the world, and the victims are not the powerful." In that context, Ferreira Rubio He proposed the formula of the "4 I's" to combat this scourge: "more information, more integrity, less impunity and less indifference".
Along similar lines, the Dr. Marcelo Bermolen, Director of the Observatory of Institutional Quality of the Universidad AustralHe explained the situation in Argentina: “Javier Milei came to power proposing a process of change, which generated expectations, and the new CPI has dealt a blow to those expectations. Milei is neglecting the institutional quality of Argentina. He hasn't given the issue the importance it deserves, and in his speeches he rarely mentions the word 'corruption'.”
He pointed out that in terms of the 2025 CPI results, Milei's performance is similar to that of Cristina Kirchner at the beginning of her second term, with quite similar figures and declines. "I'm not saying they're the same," he clarified, "but they are similar in that they don't have an active anti-corruption policy or are equally inefficient."
In his presentation, Bermolen detailed the 10 dimensions of institutional quality in the country and criticized the current government's neglect of these standards. The transparency expert warned of a different and less visible form of corruption, which he called "institutional corruption," manifested in the intentional weakening of institutions manipulated to reduce controls and affect their effectiveness. In his analysis of institutional quality during the first half of Javier Milei's term, he highlighted warning signs in many areas: more than a third of judicial vacancies remain unfilled, the functional and direct dependence of the anti-corruption office on the government, the weakness of oversight bodies—such as the lack of leadership at the General Audit Office—and the addition of new restrictions on access to public information, the limited commitment to accountability, and the absence of proposals for a new public ethics law, among other issues.
The closing: a commitment to ethics
The closing remarks of the meeting were delivered by Dr. Gabriel María Astarloa, Dean of the Faculty of Law, who defined corruption as a "scourge and a historical weakness".
Astarloa concluded that, beyond regulatory frameworks, the definitive overcoming of the problem requires an ethical transformation based on the "conviction, perseverance and exemplary conduct" of each public official.
