Transparency Int’l: Armenia ranks 95th in Corruption Perceptions Index

In its “Corruption Perceptions Index 2015″, Transparency International (TI) said the Latin American country showed the biggest decline in its ranking of 168 countries, slumping seven notches to 76th position over a kick-backs scandal engulfing state oil giant Petrobras.

India has been ranked 76th in the index list which is topped by Denmark with a score of 91, according to the International Corruption Perceptions Index 2015.

Hungary is now the fifth most corrupt country in the European Union, behind only Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Romania, according to statistics released by Transparency International on Wednesday.

2015 by Transparency International shows that Rwanda is the fourth least corrupt country in Africa and 44th globally.

Among the 168 countries where the study was carried out, Kenya emerged number 139 despite the various initiatives taken by President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2015 to fight high-profile graft in his government including asking five Cabinet secretaries to step aside over corruption-related claims in their dockets.

“In many countries, including low-scorers Angola, Burundi and Uganda, we are seeing a failure to prosecute corrupt public officials on the one hand, and intimidation of citizens who speak out against corruption on the other, ” Chantal Uwimana, Director for Sub-Saharan Africa said. “To stamp out the abuse of power, bribery and shed light on secret deals, citizens must together tell their governments they have had enough”, he said.

It found fault with Bangladesh government for exacerbating corruption by clamping down on civil society.

North Korea and Somalia are at the bottom with just eight points each.

The CPI is based on expert opinions of public sector corruption.

But, like in the United Kingdom, even some of the cleanest countries still have problems with corruption.

India has improved its past years position of 85 and has a grade index score of 38 out of a possible 100, which indicates the least corrupt, said the report.

In Afghanistan, millions of dollars that should have gone to reconstruction have been reportedly wasted or stolen, seriously undermining efforts to sustain peace. The index, which it has compiled since 2001, draws on surveys and assessments of corruption from a variety of institutions.

Malaysia was seen as becoming more corrupt previous year, and so was the Philippines.

On the opposite end of the corruption spectrum are Denmark, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore, Canada and Germany. The former is one of the poorest, most war-ravaged nations on Earth.