Singapore 8th-least corrupt country in the world

QX179R

27 Jan 16, 22:09

Singapore 8th-least corrupt country in the world: Study

SINGAPORE: The Republic has been ranked eighth in terms of freedom from corruption in a 2015 index of 168 countries released on Wednesday (Jan 27).

Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption worldwide, rating countries on a scale from zero (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean).

Within Asia Pacific, the Republic ranked only after New Zealand, which scored 88 - the fourth highest in the world. Singapore's score of 85, one point higher than in 2014, was almost twice of both the global and Asia-Pacific regional average of 43. The next highest scores in the Asia Pacific region were given to Australia (79), Hong Kong (75) and Japan (75).

In a statement, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) of Singapore said the results were a testament to "Singapore’s continued vigilance, commitment and zero-tolerance approach" in its fight against corruption.

"Singapore continues to be one of the least corrupt countries in the world and the Republic’s public sector remains as one of the cleanest," it added. "The results also attest that corruption in Singapore remains under control, with the number of corruption complaints and cases registered for investigations by the CPIB at 30-year lows."

CPIB also said that out of eight sources of data used to compute Singapore's score, the country attained top scores in four of them.

DENMARK TOPS, NORTH KOREA AND SOMALIA AT BOTTOM

Globally, Denmark, Finland and Sweden were rated as the least corrupt countries with scores of 91, 90 and 89 respectively, while North Korea and Somalia tied for the lowest place with eight points. Afghanistan was ranked the third most corrupt with 11 points.

Two-thirds of the countries on the 2015 index scored below 50, the global coalition said.

- CNA/mz/av

QX179R

27 Jan 16, 22:10