Revealing the most corrupt countries in the world as new report paints “grim picture”

September 2, 2021

Two out of three countries fail to tackle corruption effectively, which paints “a grim picture of the state of corruption worldwide”, according to Transparency International’s latest report.

The report used a score from zero to 100, where 100 was very clean and zero was extremely corrupt.

Looking at 180 different countries, Transparency International found that two-thirds scored below 50.

The bottom countries are South Sudan and Somalia, with scores of 12 each, followed by Syria, Yemen and Venezuela, which scored 14, 15 and 15 respectively.

Comparatively, Denmark and New Zealand were ranked at the very top, with both of them scoring 88. These two countries were followed by Finland, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland, with scored of 85 each.

The report also found that 26 countries had improved their scores since 2021, including Greece, Myanmar and Ecuador.

Although, 22 countries decreased their scores, including Lebanon, Malawi, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The report also highlighted that corruption has grown prevalent across the Covid-19 response, from bribery for Covid-19 tests, treatment and other health services, to public procurement of medical supplies and overall emergency preparedness.

“Covid-19 is not just a health and economic crisis. Itâ€™s a corruption crisis. And one that weâ€™re currently failing to manage,” said Delia Ferreira Rubio, chair at Transparency International.

Those findings add to the rise in cyber attacks caused by the pandemic RegTech Analyst has previously reported on.

The Transparency International report has also caused reactions across the world.

Stuart Jones Jr, co-founder and CEO of RegTech company Sigma Ratings, wrote in a blog post that the world seemed to literally be on fire with corruption, to the detriment of the innocent people living in it.

“Given the impact that corruption has on a nationâ€™s citizens, as well as its development and connectivity to the global economy, more certainly must be done to neutralise it,” Jones said.

“I saw first hand the impact corruption had on Afghanistan during my time there with the U.S. Treasury and can tell you that nothing breaks the spirit more. Ultimately, if you canâ€™t trust your government, who can you trust?”