Corruption & Diplomats & Kuwait

Al-Rai Al-Aam published an article about new research reflecting corruption. Two American researchers conducted a study to analyze how closely unpaid parking tickets by diplomats at the United Nations reflected corruption in the country which is represnted by these diplomats. Some findings of the study (.pdf version) include:

• Kuwait came in first in terms of average unpaid annual New York City parking violations per diplomat from 1997 to 2002. Each Kuwaiti diplomat was responsible for 246.2 violations per year, with the mission hosting 9 Kuwaiti diplomats in 1998. Egypt, 24 diplomats in its mission in 1998, came in second (139.6 violations per diplomat per year), followed by Chad, who hosted 2 diplomats in 1998(124.3 violations per diplomat per year).
  
• The list includes 146 countries, with the last 22 countries recording zero violations including Turkey, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.
• It seems the researchers forgot to include the American diplomats. It would be interesting to see where the USA ranks on this list.