Seychelles improves on corruption index |08 August 2008

It is now ranked 57th out of 180 countries – up from 63rd – on the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (TICPI).

The TICPI report lists Seychelles among 13 that have significantly improved their rating since the 2006 index, after it scored 4.5 compared with 3.6 previously.

The annual survey is carried out by Berlin-based Transparency International and names Finland, Denmark and New Zealand as the world’s least corrupt countries and Somalia and Myanmar as being perceived to be the most corrupt.

The index defines corruption as the abuse of public office for private gain and measures the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among a country’s public officials and politicians.

It is a composite index, drawing on 14 polls and surveys from 12 independent institutions, which gathered the opinions of businesspeople and country analysts. Only 180 of the world’s 193 countries are included in the survey due to an absence of reliable data from the remaining countries.

The scores range from 10 for the “squeaky clean” to zero for the “highly corrupt”.

A score of 5.0 is what Transparency International considers the borderline figure distinguishing countries that do and do not have a serious corruption problem.

The other countries seen to have improved significantly are Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Dominica, Italy, Macedonia, Namibia, Romania, South Africa, Suriname and Swaziland.

Some of the countries that have a significantly worse rating since 2006 include Austria, Bahrain, Belize, Bhutan, Jordan, Laos, Macao, Malta, Mauritius, Oman, Papua New Guinea and Thailand.

Neighbouring Mauritius scored 4.7, down from 5.1 last time.