In the 20th edition of the Corruption Perceptions Index, issued by Transparency International, scores for the performance of 175 countries was revealed in terms of corruption. Each country’s score indicates the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
“The 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index shows that economic growth is undermined and efforts to stop corruption fade when leaders and high level officials abuse power to appropriate public funds for personal gain,” said José Ugaz, the chair of Transparency International, highlighting that “Countries at the bottom need to adopt radical anti-corruption measures in favour of their people. Countries at the top of the index should make sure they don’t export corrupt practices to underdeveloped countries.”
Over two thirds of the 175 countries in the 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index scored below 50, according to Transparency International’s official website.
On the Arab world level, the UAE came in first place with 70 points, rising by one point from its 2013 score. It ranked 25th globally, followed closely by Qatar with 69 points and second place amongst Arab countries and 26th place globally.
Bahrain, Jordan and Saudi Arabia shared fourth place for Arab countries and 55th place globally with 55 points on the Corruption Perceptions Index. Oman and Kuwait ranked 64th and 67th globally with 45 and 44 points respectively.
North Africa’s Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and Algeria ranked 79, 80, 94 and 100, respectively on the global scale with 40, 39, 37, and 36 points respectively. Egypt gained five points compared to its 2013 score, registering a decent gain over the year.
Lebanon came in at 136 with 27 points, followed by Syria at 159 with 20 points, with Libya coming at the bottom with 18 points and ranking 166 globally.
Denmark topped countries this year with a score of 92, whereas North Korea and Somalia share last place, scoring just eight, the report revealed, adding that China, ranked 36 out of 100, and Turkey (45) were among the biggest decliners with a drop of 4 or 5 points, despite average economic growth of more than four percent over the last four years.
It is worth highlighting that Transparency International called on countries at the top of the index where public sector corruption is limited to stop encouraging it elsewhere by doing more to prevent money laundering and to stop secret companies from masking corruption.
