Organized Crime and Coruption Project

TI’s Corruption Perceptions Index praised Bulgaria’s new government for bringing corruption cases to court and for introducing reforms in customs and border police. People polled in Georgia, the report noted, had seen a decrease in petty corruption. In Kazakhstan, the report praised the government’s recent efforts aimed at improving conditions for foreign investors.

“However, those countries are still not high scorers on our list,” TI Brussels head Jana Mittermaier told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. “They still have widespread corruption. Only because petty corruption is reduced does not mean that all the high-level corruption cases or worries are resolved already.”

The Index draws corruption-related data from 17 different expert and business surveys in each country. The Index then rates countries on a scale of one to 10 – one being the most corrupt, 10 being the least – and ranks the countries in order according to their score.

Other Findings

The report also:

•    Did not change Romania’s score, citing its failure to advance anti-corruption efforts. EU membership, the report said, has actually reduced pressure on Romanian authorities to make further reforms.

•    Cited high-profile corruption scandals in Greece and Latvia, higher levels of public and private corruption in Ukraine, procurement scandals in Slovakia and government meddling in the Czech Republic’s judiciary and police. All five countries saw their scores drop from last year.

•    Ranked Russia 146th of 180 countries. Though President Dmitry Medvedev has prioritized fighting bribe-taking, most Russians think that corruption is on the rise.

The survey ranked war zones the worst, with Iraq and Afghanistan languishing at number 176 and 179, respectively. Anarchic Somalia was at the bottom for the third year in a row. The country perceived as the least corrupt was New Zealand. Last year’s first-place country, Denmark, was ranked second this year. Singapore was third.

--Beth Kampschror