BERLIN - Pakistan has scored a two-point improvement and moved to 116th position in Transparency International’s 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index, released on Wednesday.
According to the Transparency’s annual report, the country secured 32 points out of 100 in 2016 as compared to 30 points in the previous year.
The watchdog uses data from institutions, including the World Bank, the African Development Bank and business school IMD, to compile the perceptions of the scale of public sector corruption. The score runs from zero, which is highly corrupt, to 100, which is very clean.
Pakistan’s arch-rival India ranked 79 on the list with a total of 40 points.
According to Transparency International, the situation regarding corruption improved in Pakistan with Somalia on the top slot for corruption out of 176 countries.
Somalia received the dubious honour of most corrupt country in the world for the 10th straight year in the Corruption Perceptions Index 2016 released on Wednesday.
The index, which is published by Berlin-based Transparency International, aims to rank nations “based on how corrupt a country’s public sector is perceived to be.”
The group estimates that “corruption, bribery, theft and tax evasion, cost developing countries $1.26 trillion per year.” According to José Ugaz, the chair of Transparency International, in the most corrupt countries “we often see democracies in decline and a disturbing pattern of attempts to crack down on civil society, limit press freedom, and weaken the independence of the judiciary.”
In total 122 of the 176 countries ranked finished with a score below 50, which Transparency International identifies as having a “serious corruption problem.”
Somalia has not had a functioning central government since warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. The East African nation held a parliamentary vote late last year, but the process was marred by violence, corruption, vote buying and clan disputes.
The countries at the top of the list are generally clustered in Central Asia and Africa. Several war-torn nations, such as South Sudan, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan and Iraq are ranked in the top 10.
There is also a strong correlation between poverty and corruption. According to Ugaz, “in too many countries, people are deprived of their most basic needs and go to bed hungry every night because of corruption, while the powerful and corrupt enjoy lavish lifestyles with impunity.”
The majority of Asia Pacific countries sit in the bottom half of the Corruption Perceptions Index 2016. 19 out of 30 countries in the region scored 40 or less out of 100.
Poor performance can be attributed to unaccountable governments, lack of oversight, insecurity and shrinking space for civil society, pushing anti-corruption action to the margins in those countries. High-profile corruption scandals, in addition to everyday corruption issues, continue to undermine public trust in government, the benefits of democracy and the rule of law.
Bottom 10
176. Somalia: 10
175. South Sudan: 11
174. North Korea: 12
173. Syria: 13
170. Libya: 14
170. Sudan: 14
170. Yemen: 14
169. Afghanistan: 15
168. Guinea-Bissau: 16
166. Iraq: 17
