The Nepal Weekly 
February 7, 2023
Transparency International reports is showing that Nepal still stands among most corrupt nations. However, the recently released report shows that the country has made a slight improvement in reducing corruption but the country’s overall corruption score continues to remain poor.
The 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) shows that most countries are failing to stop corruption.
The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories around the world by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, scoring on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
Corruption undermines governments’ ability to protect people and erodes public trust, provoking more and harder to control security threats. On the other hand, conflict creates opportunities for corruption and subverts governments’ efforts to stop it.
Even countries with high CPI scores play a role in the threats that corruption poses to global security. For decades, they have welcomed dirty money from abroad, allowing kleptocrats to increase their wealth, power and destructive geopolitical ambitions.
Countries in the top-scoring region, Western Europe and the European Union, have been at a standstill for over a decade or have declined over the past five years. Undue influence over decision-making, poor enforcement of integrity safeguards and threats to the rule of law continue to undermine governments’ effectiveness.
On the other end of the index, countries with low scores are also unable to make significant progress. In many parts of the Americas, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, restrictions and attacks on civic space and basic freedoms continue as multiple crises threaten security and stability, democracy and human rights. Similarly, in various Asia Pacific countries, rising authoritarianism dilutes civil society’s function as a watchdog, while many leaders are prioritising economic recovery over anti-corruption efforts. In the Middle East and North Africa, where unequal political and economic power is deeply intertwined with conflict, corruption is undermining democratic processes, causing pervasive civil unrest and fuelling violence.
Check out the latest corruption wins, scandals and predictions for each region of the world.
The global average remains unchanged for over a decade at just 43 out of 100. More than two-thirds of countries score below 50, while 26 countries have fallen to their lowest scores yet. Despite concerted efforts and hard-won gains by some, 155 countries have made no significant progress against corruption or have declined since 2012, report says.
The annual flagship publication of Transparency International, a global anti-corruption group based in Berlin, made public on Tuesday mentions that Nepal has been ranked 110th among 180 countries and territories surveyed. Nepal position has a slight improvement as the country climbed seven notches in global rankings. Notably, Nepal was ranked 117th in the index in 2021.
Nepal received 34 points in 2022, one point more than in 2021. Transparency International uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is the most corrupt and 100 is the least corrupt. A score below 50 is considered as having a relatively higher level of corruption in a country, according to the anti-corruption advocacy body.
Despite some improvement in Nepal’s score, it remains in the category of countries with rampant corruption, Transparency International Nepal said in a statement. In the last one decade, Nepal CPI score moved up to 34 in 2022 from 27 in 2012 only with the ups and down in different years between these two scores, according to the anti-corruption advocacy body.
In South Asia, Nepal has been ranked below Bhutan (25th), the Maldives (85th), India (85th) and Sri Lanka (101st).Pakistan (140th), Bangladesh (147th) and Afghanistan (150th) are the only countries behind Nepal. The Transparency International produces the CPI based on the surveys of six global institutions in different fields including the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, Global Insight, Bertelsmann Foundation, World Justice Project and Varieties of Democracy Project (VDEM).
Among these institutions, scores given to Nepal by the World Justice Project and Varieties of Democracy Project (VDEM) have remained consistently poor for the last few years.
The World Justice Project surveyed the status of abuse of authority by officials of the government, judiciary, parliament and security agencies for personal gains. Likewise, VDEM conducted a survey on political corruption at government, parliament and judiciary, according to the Transparency International.
Transparency International is a global movement working in over 100 countries to end the injustice of corruption.
It focuses on issues with the greatest impact on people’s lives and holds the powerful to account for the common good. Through our advocacy, campaigning and research, it also works to expose the systems and networks that enable corruption to thrive, demanding greater transparency and integrity in all areas of public life.
