Iran falls to 138th place in the world in "financial corruption" in the new "Transparency International" report
A new Transparency International report shows that Iran ranked 138th out of 180 countries in terms of financial corruption, its prevalence, and the fight against it in 2018; this is Iran's worst ranking in recent years.
Transparency International annually publishes a report on the state of the world's countries; in this report, countries are assigned a corruption index from one to one hundred. An index of zero is for "highly corrupt" countries and an index of one hundred is for "transparent" countries.
Iran's index in 2018 is set at 28. In 2017, the index was 30, in 2016, 29, and the year before that, 27. Iran's ranking compared to other countries has also worsened over the past three years. Last year, it was 130 and the year before that, 131.
In 2013 (in a report published in December 2013), Iran ranked 144th in the world.
Explaining the performance of Transparency International, Fereydoun Khobad, an economic expert and analyst, says that this organization uses a line called the "Corruption Perception Index" to measure the phenomenon of financial corruption in countries.
This index is prepared based on a survey of government managers and administration, and a survey of economic activists and those who have an opinion on a country's affairs. Similarly, from the perspective of this organization, financial corruption means "abuse" of political and governmental position for the purpose of achieving material and personal benefits.
This non-governmental organization, headquartered in Berlin, notes that none of the countries with a democratic system scored less than fifty points, and rarely did a country without this type of political mechanism score more than fifty points.
Transparency International had previously emphasized that legal means of inspection, the degree of law enforcement, the existence of independent media, and an active civil society are among the necessary prerequisites for combating corruption and bribery.
A new report by the German institution shows that more than two-thirds of the 180 countries surveyed scored less than 50 points.
The most transparent countries are: Denmark (88 points), New Zealand (2nd), Finland, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland (3rd). Among these countries, only Singapore does not have an open and democratic system and is ranked 151st in the world in the press freedom ranking by Reporters Without Borders.
At the bottom - or in other words, the worst country in terms of the "Corruption Perception Index" - is Somalia, followed by Syria, South Sudan, Yemen, and North Korea.
Among the countries that have made good progress this year are Estonia, Senegal and Guinea, while those that have fallen include Australia, Chile, Turkey and Mexico. Transparency International has placed the United States, the Czech Republic, Brazil and Hungary on its “watch” list. The US currently sits in 22nd place with a score of 71 out of 100.
Among Iran's neighboring countries, Afghanistan ranks 172nd with 16 points, Saudi Arabia ranks 58th with 49 points, and Iraq ranks 168th with 18 points. Japan ranks 18th in the world, China ranks 87th, Russia (same as Iran) ranks 138th, and India ranks 78th.
Source: Radio Farda
