MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines fell 14 places in the latest global corruption index released Thursday by watchdog Transparency International, which found that majority of countries around the world are showing “little to no improvement” in tackling corruption.
Results of the 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index showed the Philippines slipped to the 113th spot out of 180 countries tracked by Transparency International.
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The index ranks countries based on experts and business leaders’ perception of public sector corruption. It uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
In the 2019 edition of the report, the Philippines’ score dipped to 34 from 36 previously and shared the same ranking with El Salvador, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Eswatini and Zambia.
According to Transparency International, more than two-thirds of countries scored below 50 on this year’s index, with an average score of just 43.
“Similar to previous years, the data shows that despite some progress, a majority of countries are still failing to tackle public sector corruption effectively,” the Berlin-based watchdog said.
New Zealand and Denmark, with scores of 87 each, topped the new corruption perceptions index, followed by Finland (86), Singapore (85), Sweden (85) and Switzerland (85). However, while the report shows top-scoring countries like Denmark and Switzerland to be among the cleanest in the world, corruption still exists, particularly in cases of money laundering and other private sector corruption.
The worst performers were Somalia, South Sudan and Syria with scores of 9, 12 and 13, respectively.
This year, Western Europe and the EU is the highest scoring region with an average of 66/100, while Sub-Saharan Africa is the lowest scoring region with 32 points.
“Governments must urgently address the corrupting role of big money in political party financing and the undue influence it exerts on our political systems,” said Transparency International chair Delia Ferreira Rubio.