Staff Reporter :Bangladesh has ranked the 13th among 168 countries of the world in the Corruptions Perception Index (CPI) 2015, according to Transparency International (TI). The Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog published the CPI 2015 on Wednesday, covering 168 countries and regions.Last year’s index ranked Bangladesh at the 14th.Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), the local chapter of the TI, reveled the findings at a media briefing held in the city on Wednesday.”The score is unchanged but the rank went down one notch from the bottom. The Anti Corruption Commission and Parliament will have to be more effective to improve from this situation,” TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman told this in the media briefing.”There has been no improvement as far as corruption in Bangladesh is concerned,” he said.Chaired by the Chairman of the Board of Trustee of TIB, Advocate Sultana Kamal, Trustee M Hafiz Uddin Khan and Deputy Executive Director Professor Dr Sumaiya Khair were present, among others, at the media briefing.Denmark ranked at the top of the list as the least corrupt country scoring 91 followed by Finland, New Zealand (89), Netherlands and Norway (87), Switzerland (86), Singapore (85), Canada (83), and Germany, Luxembourg and the UK (81). With a score of eight, Somalia and North Korea have been ranked as the most corrupt.Although corruption is still rife globally, more countries improved their scores in 2015, said TI in a statement.The 2015 CPI Index clearly shows that corruption remains a major problem around the world.According to CPI 2015, Bangladesh is again the second-worst performer in South Asia, better only than war-ravaged Afghanistan.Other South Asian countries – Bhutan, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Nepal – performed better than Bangladesh. Launched in 1995, CPI provides an international comparison of countries by perceived prevalence of corruption. It is a survey of surveys (12 in 2015) conducted by reputed international organisations.Information used in CPI relates to corruption in the public sector, particularly political and administrative; conflicts of interest; unauthorised payment in the delivery of government functions, justice, executive, law enforcement and tax collection. The government’s capacity to control corruption is also considered.
