The CPI, launched in 1995, ranks countries in line with perceived levels of corruption in the general public sector.
Countries are then given a rating on a scale from 0 for highly corrupt to 100 for very clean.
The Republic finished fourth together with Sweden and Switzerland with a rating of 85. Denmark and New Zealand topped the list, each with 87, followed by Finland with a rating of 86. Singapore is the one Asian country to top 10 of the 180 countries.
Berlin-based Transparency International also noted that this 12 months’s index showed most countries showed little or no improvement within the fight against corruption. More than two-thirds of nations scored below 50 on the index, with a mean rating of 43.
The United States had a rating of 69, its lowest rating in eight years. Countries at the underside of the index are Somalia with a rating of 9, in addition to Syria and South Sudan with 13 and 12 points respectively. In 2018, Singapore was ranked third out of 180 countries, also with a rating of 85.
Other international indexes also rated Singapore highly. In its 2019 Asia Corruption Report, the political and economic risk consultancy ranked Singapore because the least corrupt country, and within the World Justice Project’s 2019 Rule of Law Index, Singapore was ranked third for corruption-free.
Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau director Denis Tang said in an announcement yesterday: “While Singapore has performed relatively well within the fight against corruption, as confirmed by several international studies, we must not allow this to lull us into complacency.
“In fact, we need to work even harder to ensure that indestructibility remains part of every Singaporean’s DNA.”
Source: The New Paper
