BERLIN: The Transparency International in its 2015 edition about International’s Corruption Perception Index said that a major decline in corruption was witnessed in Pakistan in the year 2015 against the previous years.
The Transparency in its report said that overall, two-thirds of the 168 countries on the 2015index scored below 50, on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean).
Yet in places like Guatemala, Srilanka and Ghana, citizen activists in groups and on their own worked hard to drive out the corrupt, sending a strong message that should encourage others to take decisive action in 2016.
This year Transparency International is calling on all people to take action by voting at unmaskthecorruption.org. We want to know which cases the public most believe merit urgent attention to send a message that we will take a stand against grand corruption.
Brazil was the bigger decliner in the index, falling 5 points and dropping 7 positions to a rank of 76. The unfolding Petrobras scandal brought people into the streets in 2015 and the start of judicial process may help Brazil stop corruption.
The index covers perceptions of public sector corruption in 168 countries.
Denmark took the top spot for the 2nd year running, with North Korea and Somalia the Worst performers, scoring just 8 points each.
The big decliners in the past 4 years include Libya, Australia, Brazil, Spain and Turkey. The big improvers include Greece, Senegal and UK.
The Corruption Perceptions Index is based on expert opinions of public sector corruption countries scores can be helped by open government where the public can hold leaders to account, while a poor score is a sign of prevalent bribery, lack of punishment for corruption and public institutions that don’t respond to citizens’ needs.
Chairman Transparency International Pakistan, Sohail Muzaffar said that the CPI score for Pakistan this year has again increased by one point to 30, and rank has improved by three. Pakistan should have performed better which can be achieved by having on ground measures for the implementation of zero tolerance to corruption. We hope that the government will take serious steps to implement the recommendations of TI Pakistan which may result in marked reduction of corruption and much better CPI in future years.
Sohail Muzaffar further stated that amongst the five SAARC countries, Pakistan is the only country that improved its CPI score, whereas the rest either scored the same or scored less as compared to the score in 2014.
Transparency International is the global civil society organization leading the fight against corruption.
INP