MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Corruption: Chile and Uruguay have lowest regional levels

Chile and Uruguay were the best ranked countries in the latest edition of the “Corruption Perceptions Index” (CPI) released Monday by the nongovernmental corruption watchdog Transparency International.

The index ranks 163 countries by their perceived levels of domestic corruption in the public sector. As usual, at the top of the list are several Scandinavian countries, such as Finland, Iceland, and Denmark.

Among the major world powers, UK came in 11th, Germany 16th, Japan 17th, the United States was 20th and Spain 23rd.

In Latinamerica Chile ranked 20 and Uruguay 28 followed by Costa Rica, 55; El Salvador, 57, Colombia 59 and Cuba 66.

Further down comes in Brazil in position 70 similar to that of Mexico and Peru; Argentina, 93; Bolivia, 105; Paraguay and Nicaragua, 111 and Venezuela 138.

The top six of the list are Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, Denmark, Singapore and Sweden.

The Berlin based Transparency International said there was a "strong correlation between corruption and poverty." Most of the world's low-income countries -- especially in Africa -- fared poorly.

Ukraine and Georgia are 99th and Russia is in 121st place. Armenia is in 93rd place, while Azerbaijan is in 130th place. Kazakhstan is ranked 111th.

Near the very bottom of this year's list are Iraq, in 160th place, and Uzbekistan and Belarus, tied for 151st place. Turkmenistan and Tajikistan tied for 142nd place.

"Corruption traps millions in poverty," said Transparency International Chair Huguette Labelle. "Despite a decade of progress in establishing anti-corruption laws and regulations, today's results indicate that much remains to be done before we see meaningful improvements in the lives of the world's poorest citizens".

Almost three-quarters of the countries in the CPI score, including all low-income countries and all but two African states, are evidence that most countries in the world face serious perceived levels of domestic corruption.

In seventy-one countries - nearly half - corruption is perceived as rampant. Haiti has the lowest score; Guinea, Iraq and Myanmar share the penultimate slot.

Countries with a significant worsening in perceived levels of corruption in this year's report include: Brazil, Cuba, Israel, Jordan, Laos, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and the United States. Countries with a significant improvement in perceived levels of corruption include: Algeria, Czech Republic, India, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, Mauritius, Paraguay, Slovenia, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uruguay.