In good news for Sri Lanka , the country has improved on its ranking in the Corruption Perception Index compiled by Transparency International. Sri Lanka was ranked 85th out of 175 countries in the 2014 Corruption Perception Index, as compared to its ranking of 91 in 2013 out of 177 countries.

Sri Lanka’s score on the corruption perception index, improved from 37 in 2013 to 38 in 2014. The CPI cites poorly equipped schools, counterfeit medicine and elections decided by money as some of the consequences of public sector corruption globally.

The report states, “Bribes and backroom deals don’t just steal resources from the most vulnerable – they undermine justice and economic development, and destroy public trust in government and leaders”.

Executive Director of Transparency International Sri Lanka, S. Ranugge said;

[quote]We are very much concerned about the grand corruption cause. It is said that during development programmes bribes are taken 10 percent of it is given to the people concerned and the huge commission etc.. because that is not to be seen because that is happening behind you know such information is not available to the people concerned. What we are trying is to is get the information out, even now we are working. Because there could be a political change soon and also we are trying to convince the political parties to pass the right to information law make the public service independent and also have the other independent commissions etc.. then of course we can have a kind of democratic system where administration is transparent, governance is transparent. And citizens should be made aware of the negative consequences of corruption  .[/quote]

In the 20th edition of the Corruption Perceptions Index, scores for China, Turkey and Angola were among the biggest fallers with a drop of 4 or 5 points, despite average economic growth of more than 4 per cent over the last four years.

José Ugaz, Chairperson of Transparency International, said “Countries at the bottom need to adopt radical anti-corruption measures in favour of their people. Countries at the top of the index should make sure they don’t export corrupt practices to underdeveloped countries.”

More than two thirds of the 175 countries in the 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index score below 50, on a scale from 0 to 100.

Denmark comes out on top in 2014 with a score of 92 while North Korea and Somalia share last place, scoring just eight.

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