Armenia is placed 60th (up from 77th last year) among 180 countries in the Corruption Perceptions index 2020 released by the Transparency International.
Other countries in the region are placed as follows: Georgia is 45th, Turkey – 86th, Azerbaijan 129th, Iran – 149th.
Armenia’s partners in the Eurasian Economic Union Russia and Kazakhstan are ranked 129th and 94th respectively, Belarus is 63rd, Kyrgyzstan is 124th.
New Zealand tops the tanking followed by Denmark and Finland.
The 2020 edition of the CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, drawing on 13 expert assessments and surveys of business executives. It uses a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
With a score of 49, Armenia is a significant improver on the CPI, rising 15 points since 2012. A country to watch last year, Armenia has taken a gradual approach to reform, resulting in steady and positive improvements in anti-corruption, Transparency International says.
“However, safeguarding judicial independence and ensuring checks and balances remain critical first steps in its anti-corruption efforts. The effectiveness of those efforts is additionally challenged by the current political and economic crisis as a result of a recent Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the subsequent protests against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over a ceasefire deal,” the report reads.
The 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released today by Transparency International reveals that persistent corruption is undermining health care systems and contributing to democratic backsliding amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Countries that perform well on the index invest more in health care, are better able to provide universal health coverage and are less likely to violate democratic norms and institutions or the rule of law.
“COVID-19 is not just a health and economic crisis. It is a corruption crisis. And one that we are currently failing to manage,” Delia Ferreira Rubio, Chair of Transparency International said. “The past year has tested governments like no other in memory, and those with higher levels of corruption have been less able to meet the challenge. But even those at the top of the CPI must urgently address their role in perpetuating corruption at home and abroad.”
