BAHRAIN WINNING FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION

A map illustrating how countries performed on the corruption index (image: tradearabia)

Manama, 12 Safar 1436/5 December 2014 (MINA) –Bahrain has been ranked 55th on a corruption index compiled by Transparency International, improving two places from last year.

The 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) was released yesterday and grades 175 countries based on perceived public sector corruption.

Bahrain’s ranking places it among the top 32 per cent of countries assessed, tradearabia quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting on Friday.

It ranked joint 55th along with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lesotho, Namibia and Rwanda, with the UAE ranked top in the GCC at 25th followed by Qatar at 26th.

Oman came in at 64th, while Kuwait was 67th.

Denmark at first was the least corrupt country, followed by New Zealand at second and Finland at third, while North Korea and Somalia had the highest levels of public sector corruption and were ranked equally at 174th.

The most corrupt Arab countries were Iraq at 171st and Sudan at 173rd.

Corruption rankings are relative to the performance of other countries and while Bahrain’s position on the index improved year-on-year, its actual score dropped from 49 to 48 on a scale that measures corruption (with 0 being very corrupt and 100 being 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 Transparency International chairman Jose Ugaz.

“Corrupt officials smuggle ill-gotten assets into safe havens through offshore companies with absolute impunity.

“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.”(T/P009/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)