Denmark, Finland least corrupt nations; Singapore 7th

Denmark, Finland and New Zealand tied for the first place in Transparency International’s 2012 index of the least corrupt countries.

Transparency International ranks countries on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean). Lawless Somalia, North Korea and Afghanistan remain rooted to the foot of the table in the Corruption Perceptions Index.

The 2012 index ranks 176 countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption. The index assigns scores of between one and 100, 1 being highly corrupt and 100 clean.
Nations hardest hit by the eurozone debt crisis are being held back by an inability to get to grips with corruption, anti-graft watchdog Transparency International (TI) said on Wednesday.

Publishing its annual Corruption Perceptions Index, the Berlin-based body ranked Greece and Italy at places 94 and 72 respectively, out of 176 countries, and called for Europe to make tackling corruption a top priority in its battle against the crisis.

Perceived corruption in both countries appeared to have worsened. In last year’s index, debt-ravaged Greece was ranked 80th and Italy 69th.

“Underperformers in the Corruption Perceptions Index 2012 also include the eurozone countries most affected by the financial and economic crisis,” TI noted.

It appealed to Europe’s policymakers to “address corruption risks in the public sector to tackle the financial crisis” and for “strengthened efforts to corruption-proof institutions.”

Top of the class this year were Denmark, Finland and New Zealand, each with a score of 90 due to a “strong access to information systems and rules governing the behaviour of those in public positions.”

Lawless Somalia, North Korea and Afghanistan remain rooted to the foot of the table, each scoring eight points despite efforts to tackle rampant corruption in Kabul.

The following is a list of the top and bottom-ranked nations on corruption watchdog Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index, released on Wednesday.

The index score relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts and ranges between zero, which is highly corrupt, and 100, which is very clean.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *