Transparency International, the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption for more than 25 years, has ranked Nepal 177th in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2020.
Nepal slipped four positions down in 2020 compared to 2019. The least corrupt country is ranked number one by the index, indicating that corruption in the country is on the rise and hence rampant.
The country is now placed 117th, up from 113th place among 180 countries and territories surveyed in 2020. Transparency International released the latest report on Thursday, January 28.
Nepal was ranked 124th in 2018, by the global anti-corruption group based in Berlin.
Transparency International ranked 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption in the 2020 edition of the CPI, drawing on 13 expert assessments and surveys of business executives. It uses a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). Nepal’s score is 33.
In South Asia, while Bhutan is the highest-ranked at 24th place, Nepal is behind Maldives (75th), India (86th), and Sri Lanka (94th). Pakistan (124th), Bangladesh (146th) and Afghanistan (165th) trail behind Nepal in the region.
According to the report, New Zealand and Denmark are two top performers on the CPI, scoring 88, while Syria, Somalia and South Sudan come at the bottom, with 14, 12 and 12 points, respectively.
In the Asia-Pacific, New Zealand is followed by Singapore (85), Australia (77) and Hong Kong (77) while Cambodia (21), Afghanistan (19) and North Korea (18) are the most corrupt nations.
Likewise, continuing a downward trend, the United States achieved its worst score since 2012, with 67 points. The US is ranked 25th by the report.
The 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) reveals that persistent corruption is undermining health care systems and contributing to democratic backsliding amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries that perform well on the index invest more in health care, are better able to provide universal health coverage and are less likely to violate democratic norms and institutions or the rule of law.
To reduce corruption and better respond to future crises, Transparency International recommends that all governments strengthen oversight institutions, ensure open and transparent contracting, defend democracy & promote civic space, publish relevant data and guarantee access to information.
Since its inception in 1995, the Corruption Perceptions Index, Transparency International’s flagship research product, has become the leading global indicator of public sector corruption. The index offers an annual snapshot of the relative degree of corruption by ranking countries and territories from all over the globe. In 2012, Transparency International revised the methodology used to construct the index to allow for comparison of scores from one year to the next.
