Pakistan only SAARC country that improved CPI score: TI

The Transparency International (TI) on Tuesday maintained that Pakistan was the only country among the five SAARC countries that improved its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) score.

The rest of the countries scored the same or scored less as compared to their scores in 2014, the TI said in its report on CPI 2015 which is scheduled to be formally launched on Wednesday.

TI Pakistan Chairman Sohail Muzaffar, in a statement, said the CPI score for Pakistan this year had again increased by one point to 30, and rank improved by three.

He hoped that the government would take serious steps to implement the recommendations of TI Pakistan which might result in marked reduction of corruption and much better CPI in future years.

The index covered perceptions of public sector corruption in 168 countries.

The CPI 2015 showed that people working together can succeed in the battle against corruption. Although corruption is still rife globally, more countries improved their scores in the 2015 edition of Transparency International’s CPI than declined.

Overall, two-thirds of the 168 countries on the 2015 index scored below 50, on a scale from zero (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean).

Yet in places like Guatemala, Sri Lanka and Ghana, citizen activists in groups and on their own worked hard to drive out the corrupt, sending a strong message that should encourage others to take decisive action in 2016.

Brazil was the bigger decliner in the index, falling five points and dropping seven positions to a rank of 76.

Denmark took the top spot for the second year running, with North Korea and Somalia the worst performers, scoring just eight points each. The big decliners in the past four years include Libya, Australia, Brazil, Spain and Turkey. The big improvers include Greece, Senegal and the United Kingdom.