Corruption is not an exclusive preserve of Nigeria or Africa, it is a malaise that afflicts the entire world and the different lies in the institutional and legal framework put in place to combat it. Approximately two-thirds of all countries, including the United States, France, Germany and other major economic powers around the world struggle to control corruption. This amounts to an estimated 6 billion people living under corrupt governments.
Transparency International’s 2016 Corruptions Perceptions Index global average score is 43 out of 100. According to Transparency International’s grading framework, any score below 50 means the government is failing to address the country’s endemic public sector corruption.
Somalia still remains the most corrupt country in the world. Somalia has held the undesirable title as the world’s most corrupt country for the past ten years, with a score of 10 on the Corruption Perceptions Index 2016, which ranks countries’ public sector from zero to 100.
Second is South Sudan, the newest country in the world which only gained its independence from Sudan six years ago, with a score of 11. The third most corrupt country is North Korea, followed by Syria, a war-torn country which is presently seeing a massive outflow of refugees.
The Berlin-based non-governmental organization called for governments to step up on “deep-rooted systemic reforms” that target corruption.
Such reforms need to include the disclosure through public registries of those who own companies and sanctions on those who aid in the movement of corrupt money flows across borders, the organization said, pointing to the Panama Papers, which was 11.5 million leaked documents that revealed how businesses, wealthy individuals and even politicians exploit offshore tax regimes.
European nations were among the highest ranked on the Corruption Perceptions Index, occupying four out of the top five slots. Denmark and New Zealand were tied in first place as the world’s cleanest countries, followed by Finland, Sweden and Switzerland.
The island city-state of Singapore was the only Asian state to make the top ten of least corrupt countries.
The top 10 ranked nations perceived to be the least corrupt are:
- Denmark
- New Zealand
- Finland
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Norway
- Singapore
- Netherlands
- Canada
- Germany
And the most corrupt countries as ranked on the Corruption Perceptions Index 2016 are:
- Somalia
- South Sudan
- North Korea
- Syria
- Yemen
- Sudan
- Libya
- Afghanistan
- Guinea-Bissau
- Venezuela
