Source:
Centaur Media UKA new report was published today assessing perceived corruption levels in 180 countries. The NGO's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) annual report, published today, draws on expert and business surveys to score nations' perceived public-sector corruption on a scale from zero ('highly corrupt') to ten ('highly clean').
. . .
Australia and Canada both scored 8.7, putting the two countries in joint ninth place. Germany and Norway scored 7.9, putting them in joint 14th place; while the UK experienced a "significant decline" in its perceived transparency this year, the report noted, falling from 8.4 points in 2007 to 7.7, putting it in joint 16th place in the group with Ireland.
. . .
The USA, Japan and Belgium all scored 7.3, putting them in joint 18th place. The US score has decreased slightly over the past few years, the report noted, and "its global ranking continues to be one of the lowest among the world’s leading industrialised countries."
Contributing factors may include a widespread sense that political finance is in need of reform, the organisation noted, with "lobbyists and special interest groups perceived to have an unfair hold on political decision-making."
Read more:
http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=134769&d=415&h=417&f=416
Corruption index based on:
Transparency International publishes its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) each year, ranking the degree in which public officials and politicians in 180 countries are perceived to be corrupt based on data from 13 polls and surveys from 11 independent organizations both in and outside the target country.
For the purpose of this index, bribes, kickbacks and embezzlement of public funds are defined as corruption; and the existence, effectiveness and enforcement of anti-corruption laws and probes that investigate and hold those accountable were measured.
full list here:
http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2008