Denmark, Finland, New Zealand at top; South Sudan at least
Nepal remains at 117th position among the 180 nations in the list of Transparency International (TI) Index.
Transparency International is a German registered association founded on May 4, 1993 is the global civil society organization leading the fight against corruption. It brings people together in a powerful worldwide coalition to end the devastating impact of corruption on men, women and children around the world.
The index is published annually by the non-governmental organization since 1995
One of the South Asian countries Nepal has been in the same position in the report of TI published today January 2022 as it was last year of January 2021.
With this, Nepal neither upgraded its position nor downgraded in the annual Corruption Perceptions Index published by the global anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International.
Nepal was 113th in 2019 and 124th in 2018.
The other South Asian countries India and Maldives were ranked 85th whereas Bangladesh was ranked 147 and Sri Lanka was ranked 102.
According to TI’s latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI 2021), Pakistan slipped 16 places to 140 tying level with Myanmar.
Afghanistan was ranked as one of the most corrupt, finishing 174th in the list along with North Korea and Yemen.
In November 2020, the organization had made public its Global Corruption Barometer showing the ratio of people thinking that corruption is increasing in the country is 58 per cent, the highest in the Asian region.
Denmark, Finland and New Zealand were ranked the least corrupt followed closely by Norway, Singapore and Sweden.
Switzerland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany finished in the top-10 list of “clean” countries followed closely by the UK ranked 11th and Hong Kong ranked 12th.
The United States was ranked 27th, Iran, Tajikistan and Guatemala finished 150th in the corruption index
Somalia and Syria were ranked at the bottom finishing 178 in the 180-nation list with South Sudan finishing last at 180.
The Germany’s Berlin-based Transparency International report noted that “as corruption efforts stagnate worldwide, human rights and democracy are also under assault” while asserting that the COVID-19 pandemic “is being used in many countries as an excuse to curtail basic freedoms”.
The agency said 131 countries have made “no significant progress” against corruption in the last decade and “two-thirds of countries have scored below 50 “indicating that they have serious corruption problems”.
Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted with a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one’s personal gain.
To come up with Corruption Perception Index (CPI), following manifestations of corruption in public sector are taken into consideration
- Bribery
- Diversion of public funds
- Officials using their public office for private gain without facing consequences
- Ability of governments to contain corruption in the public sector
- Excessive red tape in the public sector which may increase opportunities for corruption
- Nepotistic appointments in the civil service
- Laws ensuring that public officials must disclose their finances and potential conflicts of interest
- Legal protection for people who report cases of bribery and corruption
- State capture by narrow vested interests
- Access to information on public affairs/government activities
