Nepal slips further in corruption ranking

Kazakhstan past year scored 28 points, moving from 126th in 2014 to 123th place in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index. A 0 means that a country is perceived as highly corrupt and 100 means it is perceived as very clean.

No country is free of public corruption, a scourge that has wide-ranging effects on the lives of billions of people.

Although corruption is still rife globally, more countries improved their scores in 2015, Transparency International (TI) said in a statement.

Russian Federation managed to rise 17 places for the past year to 119th in Transparency International’s 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), a ranking of public sector corruption, according to the organization’s report.

North Korea and Somalia were judged the world’s most corrupt countries, with both nations scoring just 8 points apiece.

But Transparency International noted that even those countries that have a clean public sector might be linked to corruption elsewhere.

Some of the gains in 2015, Ugaz says, came because citizens used street demonstrations to protest corruption. Corruption, according to the index, has been increasing since Nicolas Maduro was elected president, after Hugo Chavez died of cancer in 2013. People across the globe sent a strong signal to those in power: “it is time to tackle grand corruption”. Brazil was the biggest decliner, dropping 7 positions to rank 76 in 2015. Afghanistan was ranked the third most corrupt with 11 points.

Other perimeters considered include the perceived prevalence of bribery and if public institutions respond to citizens’ needs.

Other decliners a year ago included Libya, Spain and Turkey.

Among countries which improved were the US, UK, Greece and Senegal. The Nordic countries still lead the way with Denmark (on 91 points) dominating the rankings for the second consecutive year, followed by Finland (on 90 points) and Sweden (on 89 points).