CROATIA GOING BACKWARDS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION BY TWO POINTS - WITH 49 POINTS IT IS NOW AGAIN BEING COUNTED AS ONE OF THE MOST CORRUPT COUNTRIES
24.01.2017.
What does the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2016 show? Can it really be an indicator of corruption based upon which countries are compared and assessed?
CROATIA HAS BEEN GIVEN A SCORE OF 49 POINTS AND HAS BEEN RANKED 55th OUT OF 176 COUNTRIES ANALYSED IN 2016.
The Corruption Perceptions Index shows the level of corruption in the public sector on a scale from 0 to 100, with 0 denoting that the country is totally corrupt whilst a score of 100 reflects a perception that the country is without corruption.
The ranking of an individual country reflects its position compared to other countries and is not so important because the number of countries participating in the Index varies from year to year.
This year’s CPI was based on 13 sources which assess the state of corruption with 9 of the 13 sources evaluating Croatia. For a country to be included in this analysis, at least 3 sources of information must be publicly available.
The least corrupt countries in 2016 are Denmark and New Zealand with 90 points and Finland with 89 points. The bottom two countries are South Sudan with 11 and Somalia with 10 points.
The best performing country in the European Union is Denmark which has 90 points with Bulgaria at the bottom on 41 points. Countries in the EU which are performing worse that Croatia are Hungary and Romania with 48 points, Italia with 47, Greece with 44 and Bulgaria with 41 points.
In our region, Albania and Kosovo made the most progress with an increase of 3 points from last year and Serbia improved by 2 points. However, Slovenia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina fell by 2 points and Macedonia even fell by 5 points.
The CPI for countries in the region is as follows: Slovenia 61 points, Croatia 49, Macedonia 37, Montenegro 45, Serbia 42, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania 39 and Kosovo with 36 points.
Slovenia is now ranked in 31st place whilst Croatia is 55th, Montenegro 64th, Serbia 72nd, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania are 83rd and Kosovo is in 95th place.
The Corruption Perceptions Index for 2016 shows that Croatia has regressed in the fight against corruption by two points and that it is again amongst the most corrupt countries. Transparency International’s explanation is that corruption on the global level has increased because of inequality and increased populism.
Transparency International Croatia believes that corruption is not and must not be tied to ideology and that it is only the result of pure greed which is neither left or right on the political spectrum. This is the only objective criteria on which any research on the perception of corruption in institutions of particular countries can be based.
The explanation by Transparency International which is a domestic German NGO, for the increase in corruption in particular countries, is not based on these principles.
Croatia must rely only on its own resources and political will in its fight against corruption in order to ensure transparency in its political institutions and encourage citizen activism by daily advocating positive social values such as trust and especially honesty.” said Davorka Budimir, President, Transparency International Croatia.
