Thomson ReutersA demonstrator carries a Brazilian national flag during a protest calling for the impeachment of Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff near the National Congress in BrasiliaBERLIN (Reuters) – Brazil suffered the sharpest deterioration in public perceptions of corruption a year ago, global watchdog Transparency International (TI) said in its annual report published on Wednesday that showed graft remains pervasive worldwide. It scored 91 points, while North Korea and Somalia remained at the bottom with unchanged scores of 8.
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Overall, two-thirds of the 168 countries on the 2015 index scored below 50, on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean).
Top scores were generally handed out to Scandinavian countries and New Zealand with Denmark taking the top spot for the second year running.
“Just three years ago then Justice Minister Judith Collins was congratulating the Government – to cheers from her National Party colleagues – on New Zealand retaining its title as the least corrupt country in the world”. Although corruption is still rife globally, more countries improved their scores in the 2015 edition of Transparency International’s CPI than declined.
New Zealand has fallen down the league table of the least corrupt nations, with access to official information and discussion about environmental policy both issues according to the chair of Transparency International New Zealand.
Brazil was the bigger decliner in the index, falling 5 points and dropping 7 positions to a rank of 76.
Other countries whose scores also declined in the region are the Philippines, Japan and Hong Kong, the report added.
“Corruption can be beaten if we work together”, said TI chairman Jose Ugaz in a statement.
The CPI-2015 showed that people working together can succeed in the battle against corruption. While China at rank 83 and Bangladesh at rank 139 have reported no improvement, scores of Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal have increased marginally over the past year.
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The big improvers include Greece, Senegal and the United Kingdom.
