Alternative Malaysian Transparency Index (AMTI) White Paper Competition

UPDATE:
i) Please feel free to use any citation method for your references/sources. Please state in your essay the citation method which your team is using.

ii) Please refer to http://www2.lse.ac.uk/socialPolicy/Informationforcurrentstudents/Plagiarism.aspx for standard questions on plagiarism.

Designing an Alternative Malaysian Transparency Index (AMTI)

Transparency International's (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) is one of the benchmark indexes to evaluate the relative levels of corruption among almost all of the countries in the world. In the most recent 2010 index, for example, 178 countries were ranked.

In the Malaysian context, Malaysia's ranking in the index has been the subject of some attention whenever the index is updated on an annual basis. For example, according to Table 1, Malaysia's CPI Ranking has tumbled from 36 (out of 91 countries) in 2001 to 56 (out of 178 countries) in 2010. At the same time, Malaysia's CPI Score has also slipped slightly from 5 (out of 10) in 2001 to 4.4 in 2010. (10 being the best score and 0 being the worst)

Table 1: Malaysia's CPI Ranking and Score (2001 to 2010)

For this portion of the Malaysia Public Policy Competition (MPPC), you have been tasked with an assignment, by the Malaysian Chapter of Transparency International, to devise a new Malaysian Transparency Index (MTI) that will be used specifically and exclusively to track the level of corruption in Malaysia. This purpose of this new index is to allow policy makers, politicians, academics, non-government organizations and other key stakeholders to better understand the underlying drives and sources of corruption and track these changes over time.

Your deliverable, which has to be completed through an online form by 5pm, Monday, 29 August 2011, will consist of the following components:

1. A critical evaluation of why the current global Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) may not be suitable to be used in the Malaysian context.
2. A proposal for an alternative Malaysian Transparency Index (MTI) to replace the CPI. This proposal will include details on the target group(s), the various areas of corruption which the index intends to capture, the method for collecting the survey responses, the practicality of the data collection methods, the methodology which will be used to calculate the index and the regularity of publication for this index.
3. An argument of how your MTI can be used more effectively by the various stakeholders identified above compared to the current CPI.

Your essay should not be longer than 3000 words. Please feel free to include charts, graphs, slides and other visual aids where necessary.

When completed, please fill in the form below and upload your essay in PDF format. The deadline for this essay is 5pm on Monday, 29 August 2011.

Your essay will be judged according to the following criteria:

1. The critical thinking demonstrated in analyzing the shortcomings of the current CPI, devising the alternative index and how the new index can be used by the various stakeholders.
2. The creativity demonstrated in devising the alternative index. Out-of-the-box thinking is encouraged in the different processes involved in compiling and composing this alternative index.
3. The attention to detail in devising the alternative index.
4. The ability to 'put yourself in the shoes' of the stakeholders who will use this alternative index.
5. The potential challenges which may be encountered in any part of the process of preparing this index.

Please refer to the following reference resources when writing your essay (especially the methodology sections):

(i) Transparency International Corruption Perception Index: http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi

(ii) Asian Development Bank Country Performance Assessment: http://www.adb.org/Documents/Reports/Country-Performance-Assessment-Exercise/annual-report-2010.pdf

(iii) African Development Bank Country Performance Assessment: http://www.afdb.org/en/documents/project-operations/country-performance-assessment-cpa/

(iv) Economic Intelligence Unit Country Risk Service: http://www.eiu.com/site_info.asp?info_name=ps_country_risk_service&entry1=psnav&rf=0

(v) Bertelsmann Transformation Index: http://www.bertelsmann-transformation-index.de/en/bti/

(vi) Freedom House: Nations in Transit: http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=17

(vii) Global Risk Service by IHS Global Insight: http://www.janes.com/products/global-insight/country-analysis/global-risk.aspx

(viii) IMD’s World Competitiveness Report: http://www.imd.org/research/centers/wcc/index.cfm

(ix) Political and Economic Risk Consultancy - http://www.asiarisk.com/

(x) Country Policy and Institutional Assessment by the World Bank: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTABOUTUS/IDA/0,,contentMDK:20052347~menuPK:2607525~pagePK:51236175~piPK:437394~theSitePK:73154,00.html

(xi) World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report: http://www.weforum.org/issues/global-competitiveness

(Please do not buy subscriptions to some of these reports e.g. EIU and IHS. The free information on the websites will be sufficient to guide your research)

The winning team of this portion of the competition will be announced on Sunday, 4 September 2011, during the Finals which is the 2nd day of the competition. The winning team will be awarded the special prize of RM600, a Certificate as well as invitations to the ICMS Industry Roundtable Discussions hosted by KPMG and Citibank. 

All 16 teams which have been selected to take part in the semi-finals are REQUIRED to submit this essay. Some of the research which will be done during the writing of this essay MAY be useful during the two-day competition. The other 22 teams which were not selected to take part in the semi-finals are also invited to participate in this essay portion of the competition. The results from this portion of the competition, WILL NOT have a bearing on the overall winners of the MPPC Residential Challenge.

If you have any queries or clarifications, please direct them to mppc2011@gmail.com. 

-AMTI WHITE PAPER COMPETITION SUBMISSION HAS CLOSED-