Sri Lanka ranked 101 in Corruption Perception Index 2022

COLOMBO (News 1st) - The latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) compiled by Transparency International (TI) was released yesterday. The CPI scores 180 countries and territories around the world based on perceptions of public sector corruption. The scores reflect the views of experts and surveys from the business sector. The CPI is calculated using data from 13 external sources, including the World Bank, World Economic Forum, private risk and consulting companies and Think-Tanks. The CPI uses a scale from 0 to 100, whereby 100 is considered very clean and 0 is considered highly corrupt. 

Sri Lanka’s score in the 2022 CPI stands at 36 out of 100, one point lower than the previous year, which was 37, and two points lower than from 2020 – 2017 and 2014, where the CPI score remained stagnated at 38. Sri Lanka ranks at 101 in 2022, along with Panama, Albania, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Ecuador, Peru and Thailand. Over the past 10 years Sri Lanka’s CPI score has remained relatively the same, from the highest being 40 in 2012 and the lowest being 36, which is the score this year and was the score in 2016. The top countries on the Index are Denmark (90), Finland (87) and New Zealand (87) while South Sudan (13), Syria (13) and Somalia (12) remain at the bottom of the CPI in 2022. Types of public sector corruption and related criteria captured in the CPI encompass bribery, diversion of public funds, effective prosecution of corruption cases, adequate legal frameworks, access to information, and legal protections for whistleblowers, journalists and investigators. 

The report is released ahead of Sri Lanka’s fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which will take place on the1st of February 2023 in Geneva, Switzerland.