DUSHANBE, November 18, 2009, Asia-Plus — The 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) ranked Tajikistan, with a score of 2.0, 158th among 180 countries.
Kazakhstan (2.7) is ranked 120th, Kyrgyzstan (1.9) 162nd, Turkmenistan (1.8) 168th, and Uzbekistan (1.7) 174th.
The 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) demonstrates that corruption remains a serious challenge for the region that includes 20 countries of South Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. All of the countries included register scores below 5 (out of 10) indicating that they face serious perceived levels of domestic, public-sector corruption.
Transparency International (TI) has published an annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) since 1995, ordering the countries of the world according to the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians. The organization defines corruption as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”.
The 2009 poll covered 180 countries. The vast majority of the 180 countries included in the 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) score below five on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (perceived to have low levels of corruption).
The survey notes that fragile, unstable states that are scarred by war and ongoing conflict linger at the bottom of the index. These are: Somalia, with a score of 1.1, Afghanistan at 1.3, Myanmar at 1.4 and Sudan tied with Iraq at 1.5. These results demonstrate that countries which are perceived to have the highest levels of public-sector corruption are also those plagued by long-standing conflicts, which have torn apart their governance infrastructure.
Highest scorers in the 2009 CPI are New Zealand at 9.4, Denmark at 9.3, Singapore and Sweden tied at 9.2 and Switzerland at 9.0. These scores reflect political stability, long-established conflict of interest regulations and solid, functioning public institutions.
