Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan most corrupt in region
- Written by Central Asia Newswire
CA, Dec 2 (Central Asia Newswire).Turkmenistan andUzbekistan are ranked among the world’s most corrupt states, according to a report released Thursday by Transparency International.
The two Central Asian countries tie 177th out of 182 listed in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2011 which ranks states based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be.
They tied with Sudan to get 1.6 points on a scale of 0-10, where 0 indicates the highest level of corruption and 10 the least corrupt.
The only countries perceived to be more corrupt are Afghanistan and Myanmar, and bottom ranking North Korea and Somalia which tie at 182nd place with 1.0 points.
Kazakhstan fares highest among the five ex-Soviet republics in the region. It was given a 120th ranking with a score of 2.7, whereas Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan ranked 164th and 152nd with 2.1 and 2.3 points respectively.
Russia, the largest country in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), holds 143rd position with 2.4 points.
Russia is tied with Belarus for 143rd place.
Countries with a rating below 3.0 are in the zone of very high corruption, according to Transparency International’s Russian representative Helena Panfilova, the Kyrgyz news agency 24.kg said.
New Zealand tops the ranking as the least corrupt country with a score of 9.4 points. Denmark comes second with Finland, then Sweden, while Singapore comes 5th with 9.2 points.
The measure is based on perceptions because corruption is overwhelmingly a hidden activity that defies scientific measuring. However, perceptions have proven to be a reliable estimate of corruption over time, the report noted.
