DUSHANBE, October 27, 2010, Asia-Plus -- The International Transparency (IT)’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for this year ranks Tajikistan with 2.1 scores 154th among 178 countries; no serious changes as compared with 2009.  We will recall that the 2009 CPI ranked Tajikistan 158th among 180 nations.

Transparency International, the leading civil society organization fighting corruption worldwide, released its 15th annual Corruption Perceptions Index on October 26, 2010.  This year’s index ranks 178 countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys.  The Corruption Perception Index helps to highlight the propensity of domestic corruption and its damaging influence.

The 2010 CPI shows that nearly three quarters of the 178 countries in the index score below five, on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (perceived to have low levels of corruption), indicating a serious corruption problem.

According to the 2010 CPI, with governments committing huge sums to tackle the world’s most pressing problems, from the instability of financial markets to climate change and poverty, corruption remains an obstacle to achieving much needed progress.  To fully address these challenges, governments need to integrate anti-corruption measures in all spheres, from the responses to the financial crisis and climate change to commitments by the international community to eradicate poverty.

In the 2010 CPI, Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore tie for first place with scores of 9.3.  Unstable governments, often with a legacy of conflict, continue to dominate the bottom rungs of the CPI.  Afghanistan and Myanmar share second to last place with a score of 1.4, with Somalia coming in last with a score of 1.1.

Transparency International has published an annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)  ordering the countries of the world according to "the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians" since 1995. The organization defines corruption as "the abuse of entrusted power for private gain".  A higher score means less (perceived) corruption.  The results show seven out of every ten countries (and nine out of every ten developing countries) with an index of less than 5 points out of 10.