A leading international corruption monitoring group says Somalia's
economic and political collapse has made the sub-Saharan state the most
corrupt country in the world.
Berlin-based Transparency International issued the assessment in its annual report, which was released today Tuesday. The group ranks Iraq and Burma just behind Somalia on its corruption index.
Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand were rated the least corrupt nations.
Transparency International calls graft a human rights issue, noting
that in poor countries, corruption can mean the difference between life
and death when it undermines public health and sanitation operations.
The report says there is a "fatal link" between graft, poverty and
failed institutions.
The group also chides what it calls the "disturbingly uneven" enforcement of corruption in wealthier countries.
The report was compiled by researchers at the University of Passau.
Transparency International's report says 10 nations significantly improved their ranking since last year (Albania, Cyprus, Georgia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, South Korea, Tonga and Turkey), while Britain led four nations whose standings had significantly declined (Bulgaria, Burundi, Maldives and Norway).
Britain's decline was linked to a government decision in late 2006 to
terminate a criminal probe into allegations of a huge Saudi defense
contract awarded to British Aerospace Systems.
Bangladesh this year improved in corruption index, leaping three steps to attain 10th position from the below, according to the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) report-2008.
According to the report, Bangladesh came 10th position scoring 2.1, which was 7th with a score of 2 in the last year. The report was published in Berlin today.
More on this from our Dhaka stringer Amir Khasru.