South Sudan ranked world’s most corrupt country again – report

JUBA — South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, has this year bypassed Somalia to become the world’s most corrupt country with a ranking of 11 out of 100 score.

Last year’s corruption perception index ranked South Sudan and Somalia 12 out of 100 score. The two countries were followed by Syria which ranked 13.

Transparency International said South Sudan (11), Syria (13) and Somalia (13) remain at the bottom of the index.

Every year, the index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople.

Least corrupt countries includes Finland, Denmark, and New Zealand, each of which ranked 88 out of a scale of zero to 100.

Following close behind the top three were Norway, Singapore and Sweden, which shared a ranking of 85.

More than two-thirds of the 180 countries and territories on this year’s list scored below 50. The year’s average global score remained “static” at 43 and since 2012, a total of 25 countries had significantly improved their rankings while 23 had significantly declined on the scale, according to the organisers.

Corruption levels tend to increase in countries which are faced with armed conflict or authoritarian governments, including Venezuela (with a score of 14), Afghanistan (16), North Korea (16), Yemen (16), Equatorial Guinea (17), Libya (17) and Turkmenistan (19).