DUSHANBE, December 5, 2012, Asia-Plus — The anticorruption group Transparency International (TI) says high levels of bribery, abuse of power, and secret dealings continue to “ravage” societies around the world, despite a growing public outcry over corrupt governments.
The annual Corruption Perceptions Index, published on December 5 by the Berlin-based group, shows that two-thirds of 176 countries are perceived by citizens to be highly corrupt.
Transparency International regional coordinator Svetlana Savitskaya told RFE/RL the findings indicate a public demand for institutions and officials to be more transparent and accountable.
She said priorities include stronger rules on lobbying and political financing and more transparency on public spending and contracting.
Afghanistan, along with North Korea and Somalia, were once again at the bottom of the Corruption Perceptions Index.
Russia and former Soviet republics also scored poorly – with the exception of Georgia, which showed improvement.
TI says its composite index is based on data collected in the past 24 months by independent institutions specializing in governance and business climate analysis.
Two-thirds of the 176 countries scored below 50 on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean).
Georgia was ranked 51st, leaving Armenia (105), Azerbaijan (139) and all the other CIS countries far behind. Belarus was ranked 123rd, Ukraine 144th. Russia placed 133rd, alongside Iran and Kazakhstan.
Elsewhere in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan ranked 154, followed by Tajikistan (157), Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan (both 170).
Savitskaya says the situation is not improving in Russia and other former Soviet republics.
“These governments continue to be utterly untransparent and nonaccountable to citizens,” Savitskaya said. “Even though many of these governments introduced very elegant anticorruption legislation — very elaborate, very detailed strategies — these remain to be not enforced and not implemented. And also there is a continued lack of citizen oversight — civil oversight — over what the governments are doing or not doing.”
